Prince of Shadow and Ash (The Mercenary and the Mage Book 1)

by Selina R. Gonzalez

This quest for a marsh flower would be easier without the hulking black armor and oversized black sword.

“In the beginning, Etiros imbued all living things with magic.” Adelaide skimmed the preface. Generalities on magic being a pure form of energy that Etiros used to give life, but that an excess of this energy in a person resulted in a mage. It said magic could be “corrupted into sorcery by malicious intent or when used to take instead of give.”

The priests say Etiros imbued all living things with magic. Isn’t it a source of goodness Etiros gave me access to for a reason?”

Thank you. If Etiros still heard him after all he had done, Regulus didn’t know. But he needed to believe he wasn’t alone.

Even as he empathized with her lack of connection with her half-siblings, he latched onto her mention of Etiros. Until that moment, he hadn’t considered that most Khastallanders venerated the pantheistic god Prakasroht, not the creator-god worshiped in Carasom and Monparth. At least religious disagreements wouldn’t be an issue, especially if they had children—wait, what? Slow down.

“Touch me again without my consent and I will stab you.”

He felt like he had known her forever. Or like he had been waiting forever to know her.