Master of the Elements — Alice Gaines

As Elsbeth says goodbye to her father at the foot of the forbidden mountain, he places a bride's garland on
her head and then refuses to let her go.

“I won't leave you,” he insists. “Not to what lives up there.”

But Elsbeth has always known that her fate can only be found at the crest of the forbidden mountain in the master's castle, a place shrouded in legend and kissed by the clouds.

Every hundred years, on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the new century, a virgin from the town is led to the foot of the mountain and sent up to her destiny at the master's hands. None of the virgins are ever heard from again.

As the time for the sacrifice grows near, the master's protection against the elements begins to falter. Drought, wind, cold. Crops fail. The people are suffering, and only Elsbeth can put a stop to it.

But at what cost? Is Elsbeth a blood sacrifice? Or a companion to ease the master's isolation?