Unstoppable war. Unspeakable sins. Impossible love.
The Dread Sorceress Oneira has retired. She's exhausted from fighting the endless wars of kings and queens, and has long accepted that her death is near. Alone at last but for a few uninvited companions - a near-mythical wolf, a goddess's avatar, and a feline that embodies magic itself - Oneira realizes that she's bored. On a whim, or perhaps at the behest of fate, she makes an unlikely trip to the most extensive library in existence: the home of her most powerful rival, the sorcerer Stearanos.
By recklessly stealing a book from him, Oneira inadvertently initiates a forbidden correspondence. Taunting notes and clever retorts reveal a connection neither has found - nor could ever find - in any other.
But Oneira soon learns that Stearanos, bound to a vile king, is tasked with waging war on the queen she once served. A relationship with him is far too dangerous to pursue despite their mutual desire - and yet, Oneira can't seem to stay away. A bond with Stearanos could alight the long-extinct flame of life within her . . . or it could destroy her entirely.
'An extraordinary novel! Full of unexpected love, magic, heartbreak and healing' - Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop Jennifer K. Lambert lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with her husband of over thirty years, his chocolate-lab assistance dog, two Maine Coon cats who assist no one and plentiful free-range lizards. Her high fantasy novel, Never the Roses, fell on her from out of the sky and became a dream come true. She also writes under the name Jeffe Kennedy, where she is a multi-award-winning and bestselling author primarily in epic fantasy romance, and is a Past-President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA). A theft from a magical library sparks the start of a heedless, dangerous bond between a sorcerer caught in the wars of men and a sorceress haunted by her sins . . .
