The Last Phoenix Rider

Veren's Hollow burns in the night, and the only things Ember carries out of the ashes are a warm stone her dying grandmother pressed into her hands, her little sister, and the promise that the songs were true. When the stone cracks open and a phoenix hatches in her palms, Ember becomes the first phoenix rider in 300 years, hunted by an empire that has built its power on the ashes of her kind. Then Commander Cassius Vale, the man who gave the order to burn her village, lowers his crossbow and cannot pull the trigger. The phoenix imprints on him too, and the Hound becomes a traitor to everything he was raised to be. The empire is dying, feeding on the last of the dead birds it harvested. The phoenix is the only new fire in the world, and Ember is the only person who can choose what it becomes. Together with the man who was her enemy, she will cross the corrupted lands, wake the last Riders, and stand in the throne room of the empire that murdered her people, where the phoenix eggs wait in a vault that was never meant to hatch. Somewhere between the Ashen Wastes and the obsidian cells, the hatred she was raised to feel for him becomes something she was never taught to name, and the fire that was stolen turns out to be the only thing that can heal the world and set her own people free. A phoenix does not need to be caged to be kept. A fire does not need to be commanded to be trusted, and neither, in the end, does she. Inside this epic fantasy romance, you'll discover: - A slow-burn love story between the woman whose world burned and the man who burned it - A phoenix who chooses 2 riders and will not be caged - A journey across the Ashen Wastes with a fire that cannot be put out - An empire running out of the dead, and a rebel who knows how to light a fire - A final siege…