The Fire Beneath

The Story

The mountain is waking. And this time, power will not be enough.

Beneath the wreckage of Dunross, Violet and her best friend Rosa uncover a hidden archive left by Lady Morven: secret maps, forgotten records and warnings about a place called Glen Torran. Far to the north, an ancient system of stone circles once allowed the people of the glen to borrow the mountain’s heat without waking the power buried beneath it.

Now that agreement is failing.

At the centre of the mystery is archaeologist Dr Rowan Calder, a brilliant scholar convinced that the old keepers misunderstood what they feared. As the earth begins to tremble, ash falls from a clear sky and fire moves through long-dead channels beneath the village, Violet discovers that the greatest danger may not be the power beneath the mountain — but the temptation to control it.

To save Glen Torran, Violet must learn the hardest lesson of being a Runekeeper: some things cannot be protected by holding them tighter.

The Series

The Fire Beneath is the second book in The Runekeeper Chronicles, a middle-grade fantasy series for readers aged 9–12, blending Scottish landscapes, ancient runes, Norse mythology, friendship, mystery and adventure.

Book One, The Runes of Dunross: A Storm Is Coming, begins the story on the storm-lashed coast where Violet inherits Dunross House. You can read its opening chapter before starting Book Two.

New to the series? Start with Book One. The Fire Beneath picks up five weeks after A Storm Is Coming ends, so its description above, the extract, and the book itself all give away how that first story finishes.