Klara Wallace, a prodigy of the Aquilan Order, is dispatched to the scorched borderlands to quench the Ashfire—an undying inferno that has devoured half the kingdom for a decade. There she finds not a mindless blaze, but a man: Anne Emberlyn, the last of the Pyromancer bloodline, cursed to burn forever unless he claims a life for every year the fire lives. Bound by chains of living flame to a ruined citadel, Anne has become both prisoner and executioner.
When Klara's water magic soothes his torment for the first time in years, an impossible bond sparks. Touch by touch, they unravel the truth: the Ashfire was no accident, but a ritual betrayal by both their orders to keep the realms divided and obedient. As armies march to finish what the fire began, Klara and Anne must decide whether to heal the land by sacrificing each other—or burn the world down together to rewrite its laws. In stolen nights beneath falling ash, two enemies fall irrevocably in love, discovering that some flames can only be quenched by surrender, and some waters only boil when they meet true heat.
