Lin is the daughter of the immortal Hangxian (Kashchei) and the beautiful Vasylisa. She grew up alone in a dark fairy-tale iron castle. Her gift as a “sudapletka” (story-maker) is to bring her stories to life, changing people’s fates. Lin goes to Moscow to find her mother and take revenge on the man who killed her father.
Modern Moscow greets Lin with student parties, first love, and friends ready to follow her even into other worlds—but monsters break into the city, and the guardian castle persistently calls her back. How can you judge a mother who once fled out of love?
Lin is ready to kill—yet what if revenge only opens the gates for a new darkness? Lin understands: the most terrifying monsters don’t come from the outside. They’re born in a broken heart.
A story where friendship and love may turn out to be nothing more than a fairy tale she wrote for herself. Will Lin be able to forgive, or will she become the true Kashchei’s daughter—a steadfast iron queen in a dark fairy-tale world?
Welcome to a tale where myths of Slavic and Eastern worlds intertwine into a bloody pattern, and the ending is written by the heroine herself—if she dares to take up the pen.