Mina must kill her best friend...
...if she wants to save his life.
Worse, he has to let her.
Darcon and Mina, the two worst acolytes at the temple observatory of Celestriona, can only rely on each other. Her presence is a salve for his furious emotions and his the only light against the dark terrors that haunt her.
Together, they compete against the other initiates in desperate hopes of becoming one of the rare guardians of the heavens: a Celestial dragon. Each evening, it’s martial training as the sun sets, followed by studying the divine magics and hours observing the weaving patterns within the constellations.
They struggle to follow the paths laid out for them, as each academic competition, each magical test, and each fight amongst the acolytes pushes the pair closer to expulsion from the temple where life outside the sheltering walls means failure for Darcon and starvation for Mina.
Their delicate equilibrium is destroyed when a magic-wielding stranger arrives with a message that threatens to separate the young initiates from their mountaintop home. They soon find themselves struggling to not only keep their place at the temple but fighting to save their very lives—a mystical battle that will destroy their beliefs and compel them to pierce the veil of death itself.
RILEY ROOKHOUSE has always loved interconnected stories as much as he’s loved characters that show up from book to book and tale to tale. His goal is to write novels for people who play RPGs but aren’t looking specifically for LitRPG.
A lover of horror and the occult, MARIE MCCUE is a connoisseur of the darker things in life, from the monsters under your bed to that feeling of getting your socks wet