The Bride Who Returned. The Seven Brides of the Deathless King, #1

Every year, the kingdom of Elaris sends one bride beyond the Black Mountains to marry the immortal Deathless King. None ever return. Until Saphira does. One year after being dressed in white, mourned as dead, and delivered to a feared ruler no one dares name, Saphira Vel walks back through the northern gate alive. She is no longer the frightened noble daughter Elaris sacrificed. She carries deathless magic, dangerous secrets, and the truth about the brides who came before her.
The kingdom wants to use her. The prince wants the power she brought back. The temple wants her silence. And beyond the mountains, the Deathless King wants his bride returned to a court built on curses, bargains, and buried grief. But Saphira has learned the one truth Elaris never wanted its daughters to know: the bridal sacrifice was never what the people were told. As old lies crack open and the first bride's rage awakens, Saphira must decide who is truly the monster-the cursed king beyond the mountains, the crown that sent her to him, or the ancient force waiting beneath them all.
Dark, romantic, mythic, and haunting, The Bride Who Returned is the first book in The Seven Brides of the Deathless King, a gothic romantasy series filled with forbidden desire, court politics, cursed magic, vengeful brides, and a heroine who refuses to remain a sacrifice.