A Cure
for Monsters

a novel by Sasha Diez

Lionel entering the forest, sword at his side

Lionel shouted. The sound did not leave his throat. The hum broke into a grinding roar. The air split sideways with a crack that went through him. Then light, white and sharp and dry, light with a weight to it, breaking outward from where the hand had touched, flooding the ground, the figures, the distance between them and him.

Lionel Veldren portrait

Lionel Veldren is a hero by profession and by birth. He has a talent for foresight — he sees trouble coming, and it becomes an appointment to attend. He woke one morning from a dream of the ground shaking apart and two young figures he could not reach in time. It was not the first dream that had sent him somewhere, but it was the worst. He knew a catastrophe when he saw one, even in his sleep. He watched the harbour, nodded to himself, and called for his horse.

Aron washing his wounded arms at a stone trough at dusk

'Leave them alone!' Aron shouted into its ear. The creature bucked under him with raw, unnatural strength. One clawed hand raked across his shoulder and chest, tearing cloth and skin together. The pain came bright and hot. Aron locked his arms harder.

Aron — dark-haired young man

Aron Halsted is a carpenter's son whose body heals itself. Splinters close, burns knit, a crushed finger is back at work the same day. He has been broken and hurt since childhood, and he is always ready to take a hit. When his brother walked into a forest that people do not come back from, Aron went after him. Who else would?

Miv in a sunlit clearing

A boy lay there with his hands behind his head, one leg stretched out and the other bent, his foot moving idly as if to some tune only he could hear. For a moment he looked almost unreal in that fixed patch of light, all sun-warmed gold and easy lines, beautiful in the careless way of old carvings of angels and summer gods.

Miv portrait

Miv grew up in Liret, in a house of stablekeepers and healers. Her gift was understanding magical creatures, reaching into their minds and feeling them reach back. Then the gift went quiet. One morning she saw a patch of sunlight that did not move with the clouds. A boy lay in it. She knew he was magic before she knew his name. Korr, a centaur who trades with Liret, told her the answers are with a mage whose name no one says out loud anymore. Miv took a map and started drawing a route, hoping her mothers would let her go.

The route she drew would become the road for all three. Each set out for their own reasons. They will need each other for the same one.

A Cure for Monsters

Coming winter 2026

Read the Prologue