What the Fire Keeps

A treaty sealed in iron. A secret that could shatter it.

The war between Scorched Ridge and Whisperwind Vale would be swift, brutal, and catastrophic for both sides. So the orc High Chieftain and the elven king choose a different weapon: a marriage.

Syllia Theren has spent her life perfecting the art of composure. As an elven princess, she must be unreadable, untouchable, above suspicion. Because beneath twenty-six years of flawless discipline lies a secret her family has buried since childhood: when her emotions fracture, the wind answers. In a palace of open air and silverwood canopy, the slips were easy to hide. Inside a fortress of volcanic stone where the air barely moves, every crack in her control is a detonation waiting to happen.

Zarfu Varr didn't choose this marriage. He chose it over the alternative. Now the orc heir must hold together a treaty his own council wants to dismantle, manage a father who trusts no elf alive, and share his ancestral fortress with a woman whose composure he can't stop trying to read. When he discovers what she's hiding, he has everything he needs to destroy her standing and collapse the Accord.

He protects her instead. And the cost of that protection is something neither of them can afford.

As a mercenary army builds in the mountains between their nations, Zarfu and Syllia are forced into the contested peaks together, where the altitude strips away every defense they've built. Against the enemy in the passes. Against the politics waiting at home.

Against each other.

• Book One of The Blackspire Accord trilogy.
• Dual POV. Slow burn.
• Arranged marriage.
• Political Intrigue Fantasy