Honor. She lost it due to the temptations of revenge and the taste of long-awaited freedom. Her own needs suffocate her grasp on humanity, slipping through her fingers like sand. She fights for the greater good, but at what cost? Onyx was once a warrior of purpose, a necromancer standing against the cruel rule of the Orc Queen, Demeter. But as war rages on, she feels herself fading away in the power that once made her strong, letting it consume her until there is little left of the girl she used to be. The fire of vengeance burns brighter than the light she once followed. Rok, now captured-is yet another piece of herself stolen by the Queen's cruel hands. And as the curse keeping the dragons imprisoned in stone weakens, the balance of the world tilts dangerously toward chaos. The darkness calls to her, whispering promises of victory, of power, of an end to the pain. But when the battle is over, when the Queen falls or rises, who will Onyx be? A hero? A monster? Or something far worse?

***2024 Watty Awards Shortlisted*** https://www.wattpad.com/list/1642504418 **Action/Adventure Second place winner of The Fabulous Writer Awards ** War. For as long as memory serves, it has consumed the lands of Druzatria, stripping away freedom and peace from the kindred who dwell there, claiming countless innocent lives as casualties. For Onyx, life has been blood and sand. She is a gladiator, made for battle, bound by chains. She was forged in the Queen's arenas, raised not as a daughter but as a weapon, honed by violence and bloodshed. Abandoned by her father and gripping to the fading memory of her mother; she's learned to bury any weakness deep, to survive at all costs. Though her power rivals that of the strongest, she is bound-imprisoned by the Queen's merciless hold, wielded only as a tool of destruction. The arena has sculpted her into an unbreakable warrior, yet she is locked in a relentless struggle with herself. Haunted by the urge for something more. Until an Orcish Halfbreed enters the pit, the clash of their blades ignites a fate neither could foresee-a fight that will alter the course of her fate forever. Setting both on a path neither expected. Will she fall further under the Queen's iron grip, or rise and claim the one thing she has fought for her entire life? Will she lose everything she has fought to keep? And is she willing to pay in blood?