Roses & Thorns

Desperation. Not a phenomenon Tempest could typically claim, but certainly the catalyst for where she's landed. Not in peril, or pain, but in dire need of the very normalcy she's often emulated, but never been able to obtain. Now... there's nothing in her way, except all those years of being everything except what she now has to become. Herself. As soon as she figures out who that is.

As a rose abandoned in the desert, she's made a vow - she'll never go back to the way things were... a promise that was easier to keep before a thorn showed up. (This is not a book centered around a love story.)

Broken. A word typically ascribed to fragmented, useless things - not people. A word most would easily impose upon a woman like Dacia, knowing she's been through the kind of things that are meant to leave a person fragmented. A word that comes with pre-conceived notions, judgements... limitations. None of which she embraces, or accepts. Because what if putting the pieces back together is the very thing that makes her stronger?