As I close out 2025, it feels right to finally share something I’ve been carrying quietly with me for months—the title of Book Two in the Prophesied Prince trilogy.
Curse of the River.
If Child of the River was about beginnings—a prophecy awakening, a girl fleeing grief, a prince crossing the sea—then Curse of the River is about aftermath. About what lingers once the river has spoken, once the curse has been cast, and once running is no longer enough.
Rivers, in this story, are never just water. They remember. They witness. They bless—and they punish. In Book Two, the river that shaped Sugandha’s fate refuses to loosen its grip. The magic deepens, the truths grow sharper, and the cost of survival becomes harder to ignore. Sugandha is no longer only a girl on the run; she is a young woman beginning to understand that power, once awakened, demands to be reckoned with. And Atul—still haunted by who he is and who he is not—must decide what loyalty, leadership, and sacrifice truly mean when curses do not stay neatly in the past.
I chose this title because it reflects what this book has become for me while writing it: darker, more intimate, and more unforgiving. The river does not simply carry them forward—it tests them. And sometimes, it turns against those who think they understand it.
Revealing this title feels like a promise. To higher stakes. To deeper bonds. To consequences that ripple far beyond a single choice or a single shore.
Welcome to Curse of the River.
Anna Bushi 