For centuries, Seraphina was a living Saint, a vessel of divine light gifted by the land's guardian dragon. Her touch could mend any wound, her presence a balm against the world's darkness. But when a rival kingdom slew the dragon and stole its power, her light was extinguished. Now, blamed for the tragedy and stripped of her divinity, she lives in self-imposed exile as a humble village herbalist, her past a ghost that haunts her every waking moment.
But the past does not stay buried. A magical plague, born from the corrupted heart of the dead dragon, is seeping back into the world. It is a sickness of decay, a creeping blight that no mortal medicine can stop. To save the people she has come to care for, Seraphina must confront the source of her greatest failure. She is not expecting to find him there.
Ash is the Ashen Phoenix, a terrifying omen of ruin whose nature is not to create, but to consume. Wreathed in life-draining grey flames, he is a being of endings and decay. He is also the key to stopping the plague. Bound by an ancient vow to the dragon she failed, Ash offers Seraphina a chilling deal: his power in exchange for her company on a perilous journey to the heart of the corruption. A healer who can no longer heal and a destroyer who brings only silence-together they are the world's only hope. But can light be found in the ashes of a fallen Saint, and can life bloom in the heart of a being made of death?
(The Artifact Hunters # 1)
~♤◇Trust is a luxury some can't afford♡♧~
One mistake. One cursed object.
Now, the two are bound together, forced to set aside their hatred, and find a way to be free of the curse before it consumes them.
It would've been easier if Alister wasn't a serial killer who hunts the corrupt. Or if the pretentious Clara's family, full of dirty secrets, hadn't been his next target.
But as the curse tightens its grip, twisting their minds, and enemies circle in the dark, they realize they might not have as much time as they thought.