Emberquell Order
A noblewoman seeking adventure finds herself at odds with a Furyknight who knows about her secret life, and swore he'd never trust a woman again.
His greatest battle isn't war... it's wanting her. Just weeks from an arranged marriage to a man old enough to be her father, Lady Grace Barnslow encounters Voski, a dark, enigmatic dragon rider from a neighboring kingdom—who despises her on sight. While Grace was born to a world of silk and silver, every privileged choice determined before her birth, Voski is everything the realm admires in a Furyknight: An accomplished man of few words, with intellect and wiles as sharp as his blade, and the casual courage to ride dragons. He is cold to the point of cruelty, yet Grace is unable to resist his savage allure. Voski refuses to trust a noblewoman who smiles sweetly in the ballroom, yet navigates the shadows with all the skill of a spy. When he finds her following him, he intends to return home, leaving her in the velvet cage of the enemy's castle. But his plan is waylaid when a wild dragon Chooses her—and bonds his dragon. Sucked into the bonfire of a she-dragon’s heat, Voski goes to war with himself, and the draw of a dragon bond. Yet, in the wake of his triumph at resisting both, he finds himself standing not on the bloodied field of victory, but in the ashy remains of what might have been. As Grace proves her courage and compassion, time and again, yearning for his approval, Voski is forced to face the festering wounds of his past. If he cannot overcome the scars and open his heart, Grace will be lost forever. Not only to a rejected bond, but to the type of man Voski despises: A noble of power who sees not a woman, but merely a womb… and the prestige riding her blood.
He surrendered his heart. Now he battles demons to keep it. Voski finally yields to the bond and opens his heart, ushering Grace into a thrilling world of love and heat. But even as he lets her light in, the specters of his past still hover in the shadows. Just as the bond cements, and their souls entwine, the life Grace fled rises to claim her. And when the twin traditions of bloodline and kingdom collide to threaten everything they’ve built, Voski is desperate. He finds himself forced to do the one thing he swore he never would: Go back. Back to the people who shaped him with fear and false gods. Back to a childhood built on control disguised as devotion. Back to dark power, and the even darker man they molded him to become.
His demons will rise—and be slayed by the weapons they handed him. Voski spent his life learning to thrive without attachment. Using power as a weapon, and taking whatever he chose. But his dragon changed him. Saved him. Healed him. And he swore he’d never embrace the shadow again. But now, the one person he can’t live without is slipping from his grasp. Torn away by the very people he fled. Saving her means being the blade they hold to her throat. Becoming the enemy. If he doesn’t, Grace will be exploited, and ultimately destroyed. But if he does, he risks being consumed by the same darkness he’s been fighting all along.