Moonlight Blade

Narra Jal has spent her whole life on the margins as one of the cursed, written off as an omen of bad luck. She made a vow to her mother never to set foot in Bato-Ko again, but when her mother's life hangs in the balance, she has no choice but to go back to the city of her birth.

Waiting there are the trials, a brutal run of deadly challenges meant to filter out the weak, the greedy, and the foolish. Whoever survives will choose the next ruler of Tigang. Narra enters with nothing: no weapons, no training, no magic, and little realistic hope of getting out alive. What she does have is stubborn courage and a refusal to accept the fate others have assigned her.

She is also drawn to the Guardian, an intense, dark-eyed figure with whom she feels an unexpected, charged connection, yet he cannot offer her any help. Narra faces the trials alone, determined to show everyone exactly what the so-called unlucky are capable of.