From Shah to Lamia (The Lamia Consequence) by Sterling G. Wolfsfrost

In a sacred empire of pearl, gold, ink, and desert fire, worship is never merely devotion. It is law, inheritance, architecture, and danger. Ahraesh, Army General of Persia’s Arabia, has spent her life serving a royal house bound to deities, temple rites, and ancient powers. When a holy commission ends in bloodshed, her family is shattered, her kingdom is thrown into crisis, and the divine order she was raised to honor reveals the cost of its attention. As funeral rites become political testimony and sacred silence hardens into accusation, Ahraesh is drawn toward a throne she never sought. Around her, hidden roads open: assassins vanish into forbidden sanctuaries, witnesses carry supernatural marks, bones remember what the living conceal, and a chthonic titaness waits beneath the polished language of courts and temples. To protect the dead, Ahraesh must confront priesthood, monarchy, immortal power, and her own inheritance. To protect the living, she must learn which deities can be bargained with, which must be defied, and which leave curses where tenderness once stood. Read more