Book One in the Ashes of Aekos series.
Their love was forbidden—but fate doesn’t play by the rules, and neither did their hearts.
Briette Nolvareth was never meant to survive. Born into the Gritfolk slums—the lowest class in the Galactic Commons—she’s scraped and clawed her way through a system built to keep her down. Now, after years of fighting to claim a life worth living, she’s carved out a safe haven as a bartender at a cozy Gritfolk café-bar, finally able to breathe. Finally free… or so she thinks.
Dr. Eryndor Vaelric is a prince in everything but name. Raised by a royal family in hiding, he’s one of the last free Aekosi—a race of immortal beings hunted, enslaved, and drained for their regenerative blood after the Sundering War nearly five centuries ago. Disguised and disciplined, Eryndor hides in plain sight, working as a trauma surgeon in the outer districts where the need is greatest and the rules easiest to bend.
They’re from different worlds. Literally.
Their love? Forbidden.
But when fate brings them together, neither can deny the pull—soul-deep, dangerous, and utterly consuming.
In a galaxy built on blood and control, falling in love isn’t just risky—it’s lethal. When an attack on Briette threatens to rip them apart, the two are forced to run. But even lightyears from everything they’ve known, shadows lurk. The kind that don’t just threaten lives—but hearts, hopes, and the fragile threads of love that bind them.
To survive, they’ll have to defy the system.
To find peace, they’ll have to outrun the past.
And to claim the future they deserve… they’ll have to fight for it.