A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, #1)

by Roseanne A. Brown

To listen to a griot was to enter a new world, one where heroes danced across the heavens with spirits in their wake and gods churned mountains into being with a flick of their wrists.

It was said that a person’s Alignment decided every major moment of their life, from what kinds of work they’d be most suited for to who they were destined to spend their life with.

Karina had molded her grief into a sword, poised to harm anyone who dared get close. But her mother had built hers into a wall, and no sword, no matter how sharp, could take down defenses so strong.

“The only person I’m interested in marrying is the one who can catch me the moon with their bare hands,” she declared, fully aware of how ridiculous it sounded.

If Ziran fell, her only regret would be that she could not be the storm that tore it apart.

But his heart raced whenever he thought of the epic love the old stories spoke of. Love so strong people would cross oceans and face down gods just for the chance of it—that was what Malik wanted. But he was too anxious, too poor, too strange to ever have something like that, so wanting it would have to be enough.

“She told me that the people we lose never truly leave, but that only we get to define how they stay.”