Love doesn't ask permission to take root.
A body in the branches. A decade-old grudge. And a love neither of them saw coming.
Kaela has spent ten years clawing her way back from one mistake. The last thing she needs is to babysit a grass-brained Investigator when a rare murder in their World Tree home forces them beyond its isolated borders. Hian has spent his life climbing a prestigious political ladder without looking back. The last person he needs at his crime scene is Kaela, the infuriatingly capable wildcat of the Tree Guard he grew up trying to forget. But the murder they uncover together unravels into a conspiracy reaching into the highest branches of power, and drags them back into each other's orbit whether they like it or not.
What starts as a grudging partnership becomes something neither of them can outrun. But as old feelings resurface, a far greater danger is closing in—one that will burn down everything they've ever known and force them to fight not just for each other, but for the only home they have.
The complete Rootbound Hearts trilogy—Blood on the Bark, Ash in the Leaves, and Roots in the Cinders—follows Kaela and Hian from a body in the branches to the ashes of their world and back again.
