A Winter of White Ash (A Desert of Bleeding Sand)

Winter is coming to Thalesai and ashes will fall…
My kingdom, Thalesai, stands at the edge of a great war as the king of the darkness steers his forces against us. Within our own borders, a rebellion simmers as tribes threaten to split and rulers start to take sides, leaving the wounds the kingdom suffered at the coronation still open and bleeding.
Dathan and I are no longer aligned.
He’s been sent across the sea on a mission shrouded in secrecy, tasked with stealing fragments of an ancient weapon lost to myth.
And me? The Commandant has given me orders that place me directly in his path. Once again, we’re rivals—our missions at odds. And yet… how do I stop a man who once fought by my side? Whose touch still lingers like fire on my skin? How do I stay cold when our hearts burn for more?
Everyone insists that what sparked between us is doomed. Our families demand we sever whatever bond was forged.
But what Dathan and I have is not so easily broken.
We’ll sail treacherous seas, infiltrate kingdoms where death wears a crown, and battle beasts older than the bones of the earth.
But the hardest war waits within us.
Because if we don’t confront the darkness of our pasts…
Then Thalesai will fall.
And so will we.