Choose your guardian. Choose your destiny. From the #1 bestselling author of the Fablehaven and Beyonders series comes an epic new fantasy set in a world where children bond with a spiritual guide—some promising greatness and glory, while others, destruction and death.
FORBIDDEN MOUTAIN
by Brandon Mull
Labyrinth Road/Random House, April 2026
(via Writers House)
Every Anoran child dreams of the day they will enter the sacred bonding hut and match with a guardian—a spiritual guide who grants magically enhanced abilities. A lucky few will bond with Advocates, who promise greatness and glory. Others will be tempted by forbidden offers from the Accursed—dangerous spirits who bring nothing but destruction and a penalty of death to any Anoran who chooses them. But when Mako discovers that the worst of these agents of chaos has returned to spread an ancient evil through the empire, he faces an unthinkable choice: Will he bond with one of the Accursed to gain the power to stop another?
Halfway across the empire, Arden has no guardian and no prospects of adventure…until she infiltrates an underground criminal network to find her missing friend. Relying on her knack for sensing the truth through even the smoothest lies, Arden finds herself at the center of a sinister conspiracy that runs much deeper than she ever imagined.
Soon Mako’s and Arden’s fates collide, and together they must face bandit armies, dark secrets, and untold dangers to fight an enemy who could destroy all they’ve ever known.
Brandon Mull no longer lives on the side of a mountain above a prison. He now resides in a happy little valley near the mouth of a canyon with his wife and three children. Since the arrival of his new daughter, he is more the golem of the household than ever, following whatever orders trickle down the chain of command. Brandon is the author of the New York Times bestselling Fablehaven books and The Candy Shop War.

In our age of hyperconnectivity and information overload, something has become scarce: the ability to make sense of it all—to step back far enough to see the shape of your own life. You can feel it in ways large and small: achieving a goal but not being able to pause long enough to appreciate it. Watching the weeks and months pass in a blur without a sense of the bigger “why.” Making decisions that look right on paper but somehow feel wrong at a deeper level. How do we regain our sense of perspective on what matters? 
Wally Mammoth lives in the Ice Age, where his huge heart warms even the coldest