A Shape To Return

Love was never the missing piece.Arthur Vale has spent his life solving impossible magical problems through patience, precision, and an almost unreasonable refusal to let delicate things fall apart.When a mysterious bone button appears among the collection he has carried for years, it opens a doorway beneath his home into the heart of a dying civilization.The shapeshifters have survived every disaster imaginable by becoming anything they needed to be.Anything except themselves.Unable to keep names, families, or even stable children, they ask Arthur for the one thing they believe can save them: his extraordinary endurance.But Arthur refuses to become another solution imposed by fear.As ancient secrets surface and old enemies return from the darkness between stars, Arthur and a woman who chooses the name Serein discover that survival has never been the same thing as living.Some doors are left open so you can escape.Others remain open until you finally choose where you belong.