A Broken Promise

Dark creatures detect magic in a slave girl who has none

Finnleah has survived 396 days in the Rock Quarries, chained to Viyak—a blond, blue-eyed man who kept her alive with shared food and survival instinct.

Dark creatures detect magic in a slave girl who has none

Finnleah has survived 396 days in the Rock Quarries, chained to Viyak—a blond, blue-eyed man who kept her alive with shared food and survival instinct. She is twenty-two, freckled, malnourished, orphaned and raised by an elven maid named Tuluma who was killed by Destroyers years ago. She believes she possesses no magic. Then the Kahors arrive—hooded, floating creatures of rot who taste blood for traces of power. They select two other captives, then drift toward Finn. One claw slices her throat. One drop of blood, and the creature hisses its verdict: magic. Finn is unshackled from Viyak, a rope tightened around her neck. She grabs his calloused hands and promises to find her way back—a promise she has no way to keep.

Lord Inadios offers a powerless slave to the most feared man alive

Finn is sold to Lord Inadios, a fat, sweaty Royal lord who demands she prove her Creator abilities. She lies, claiming magnesium in her blood still blocks her power—a half-truth borrowed from a real Creator in the prison wagon. Inadios buys it, barely. He orders her cleaned and prepped as a gift for his arriving master: the Destroyer General. That first night, a guard named Dimitrii tries to rape her. Finn fights back with a mirror shard, slashing his face deep enough to scar permanently, then screams for fire until another guard intervenes. The next day, broken-ribbed and bruised, she is dressed in emerald silk and led to the throne room. When the General arrives in obsidian armor, his soldiers marching in unison, Finn collapses—consumed by a panic attack at the proximity of Cleansing Fire.

She sinks her teeth into the Destroyer General's neck In his quarters, the General burns away her ropes with painless silver flame and sets his rules: obedience, no running, address him as Lord Master. Finn tells him to go to hell. At dinner that evening, he uses telekinetic fire to lift her onto Inadios's throne—a deliberate humiliation of the groveling lord. When the General leans close to whisper in her ear, Finn seizes the only weapon at hand: her teeth. She bites into his neck hard enough to taste his bitter blood. Fire ropes materialize, scorching her wrists raw. But instead of incinerating her, the General merely notes she will have to try harder. She promises to kill him in this life or the next. He has soldiers carry her away. She expects death.…