Elias Crane has spent nineteen years as a deniable asset for the Meridian Office, the covert service that recruited him as an orphaned teenager. When a routine extraction in Lisbon turns out to be a trap set by his own handler, he learns the organisation has declared him a liability. Erased, hunted and carrying secrets that make him too dangerous to leave alive, he must uncover who wants him silenced.

I kept the fairy-tale narration and warm, simple tone of the original, and picked up on the “something was wrong with the princess” hook. I left the red star as a seed for a plot thread.

A wanderer with a dark past and a mysterious companion embark on a dangerous quest to slay a vengeful god.

Lila discovers a mysterious voice beneath the ancient ash tree on her property, leading her to uncover secrets buried deep within the earth.