Wonder and realism, belonging and sacrifice. A queer cosmic fantasy romance featuring a socially anxious woman, immortal cosmic beings, and a happy ending earned the hard way.
Em Dubois, 35, likes to think of herself as rational. Embarrassing breakups, unstable employment, existential dread? All survivable with strategic compartmentalization and panicked decision-making.
Then she catches the attention of Vael, who appears out of nowhere with frustrating levels of confidence, an inexplicable interest in helping her, and a remarkable ability to dodge every question she asks.
What Vael fails to mention is that he is one of two cosmic architects who shaped the earth itself, or that they have spent millennia awkwardly trying, with mixed success, to pass as the humans they created. His history comes with consequences, with powerful organizations pursuing him for centuries. The deeper Em is drawn into the oddly welcoming circle around him, the harder it becomes to imagine a future separate from theirs.
When that conflict turns its attention on her, Em has to decide whether the family she’s found is worth risking everything for, despite considerable evidence that this is a terrible idea.
Em’s life changes when she meets Vael and becomes pulled into his world and his fold.
What begins as fascination and connection gradually draws her into something larger, stranger, and more dangerous than she understands.
FOR READERS WHO LIKE
Character-driven fantasy ✦ Cosmic fantasy ✦ Found family ✦ Slow-burn tension ✦ Friends to lovers ✦ Morally gray characters ✦ Ancient beings ✦ Identity ✦ Touch her and die
Circumstances tear Em away from what she knows and place her alongside Serith. Where Vael drew her in openly, Serith keeps the world at a distance behind carefully built walls.
Em slowly breaks through his barriers, uncovering what lies beneath his restraint while tensions and larger conflicts continue to grow.
FOR READERS WHO LIKE
Enemies to lovers ✦ Power imbalance ✦ Found family ✦ Slow-burn tension ✦ Morally gray characters ✦ Ancient beings ✦ Identity ✦ Touch her and die
With an unexpected ally, Em must step forward and help pull the world, and the people she cares about, back from the edge before there is nothing left to save.
The prologue begins at the birth of the universe. Chapter One begins at a bus stop. Both feel equally consequential.
