Destiny and Darkness

For Aeryn, a girl born to the remote, wintry Ice Crown region of Ilirya, the outside world is a fantasy: a series of wonderful stories told by occasional passing travelers. She never imagines anything for her life beyond following in her parents' footsteps. But the discovery that she has the rare gift of magic shatters her isolated world. Aeryn can create and tame fire. It's an intoxicating, raw, and thrilling power, but it also sets her apart. And her gift attracts attention. She is whisked from her home in the wilds to train at Windhall University and master her magic.

Not three months ago, I'd been a daughter of the Ice Crown, the lands of snow and ice. Everything I had, everything I was, existed in a tiny world of its own, a single snowflake in a snowstorm. And then, like a candle blown out by careless lips, all of it had been extinguished in an instant. The kingdom is under threat. A secret, desperate plot to change the course of history has been hatched in dark rooms. Aeryn, a young student war mage from an isolated land of ice, has the powerful gift of fire.

The Southlands is a place of mystery. A hermit kingdom with which Ilirya has been at war for 40 years and the home of monsters and living nightmares. But now it is Ilirya's only hope. Bold, brave lesbian Asher is among a small band of knights sent to achieve peace at any cost with the Southlands' mercurial leader, the King of Cats. With enemies howling at Ilirya's gates, failure will mean Asher's homeland will fall.

In this exciting fourth and final book in the Destiny and Darkness series, Aeryn, a young dead war mage indentured to Death, is the only one standing in the way of looming disaster.