Elara Vance’s orderly life in Cedarford is upended when she inherits a strange legacy: she is the last Warden of the Elderwood, a sentient American forest. Guided by a grumpy Caretaker named Silas, she must learn to listen to the whispers of the trees and mend a dangerous breach. Confronting not a monster, but a tormented entity poisoning the woods, Elara discovers her true role isn’t to fight, but to understand. Healing the ancient wound requires empathy over force, forging a new bond between her ordinary world and the elder magic at its border.
