Uncommonly Verdant by Daria Vernon

“His vines were limned with the sheen of recent rain, and the fine roots that sprouted from his shoulders glowed white against the new sun…”

To ALTHEA, the mark she was born with is harmless, but to the denizens of her nameless village, it is an omen that will shatter their centuries-old truce with the forest and the vile sprites that inhabit it. When their crops go dry, all fingers point to her, and the cult that brokers peace with the forest sees to her ritual demise…
SILVANUS, guardian of the forest, is a prisoner to his woods—having lost all sense of time as the centuries of his reign begin to blur. That is, until he discovers a sacrificed woman in his glade and uses his wending vines to stitch her wound and resurrect her. In her, he discovers a mutually shunned soul and knows her sacrifice to be unjust. Yet, a dangerous ember in his chest warns that all is not well in his woods…

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UNCOMMONLY VERDANT is a 15,500 word novelette/novella short read. It’s a sensual, dark fairytale fantasy that features on-the-page intimacy with a viny forest guardian. It explores some darker elements—cults, deadly creatures, ritual sacrifice—but concludes with an HEA.