Tildy Silverleaf and the Starfall Omen (The Lost Royals)

TILDY SILVERLEAF is a teenage Human girl perfectly content reading books, tending garden, and secretly flitting about on magical wings - if only she could control her other shapeshifting abilities.Her home, a rickety cottage that looks like the stump of an unbelievably massive tree, can be found in the garden oasis of Dappledown, which itself lies hidden within a haunted forest. She has lived there since she was rescued as an infant from the smoking ruins of a secret caravan.Her rescuer? The most unlikely person: a reclusive WITCH with a reputation darker than their haunted forest home. Even her name is too dangerous to use. She has kept Tildy mostly hidden for twelve years, fearing the angry prejudices of a wider world that fears to face the strange. This is fortunate, for Tildy is a princess who is believed dead after her fortress home fell under siege. There are many foes and worse who would seek to end her bloodline, should her identity be discovered.Their pastoral life is interrupted when a survivor from the witch's monster-hunting past arrives on the darker side of midnight. The man, DESS, begs for help. Now the witch must weigh the protection of her daughter against the lives of people being terrorized by another dark creature. As far as Tildy is concerned, it's the first of several terrible decisions.They engage their roguish friend FIETHA to help Dess, only to discover that both men ran afoul of the dreadful creature. Angry and fearful, they blindly pursue it into the wilderness. On their quest, they meet the dreadful stone SARSENITH, Faeish folk like fairies and the dryad WHISHWHISH, shape-thieves, the vile SLITHER-WITHERS, and a peculiar OBSEQUIANT, who has a way of, well, a way of knowing things. The final showdown occurs at the top of the Last Shard when the hidden villain finally reveals themselves in all their destructive glory. Tildy, our conquering hero and beloved shapeshifter, finally returns home with the realization that, not only has she change