A marriage of convenience is just another move on the chessboard for the Order. Maya accepts her fate with the cold grace of a strategist. Art accepts it with the silent fury of a caged beast. Between them lies a desert of ignored glances, one reckless, misplaced kiss, and a canyon of unspoken words. But when Maya is sent on a suicide mission into the heart of the Black Crags, Art does the unthinkable. He follows. Not because he was ordered, and not for the glory of the Order. He goes by the right of a man ready to put the world to the torch just to keep her breathing. They call him a "living rock"-unfeeling, unyielding, and cold. But the world is about to learn what happens when you try to tear away the only thing a rock has ever anchored itself to. How much fire is hidden in the heart of a stone?