Cast in Stone (Book 2 of The Conquest of Kelemir) by A.F. Dery

Release date: March 13, 2015
Subgenre: Fantasy romance, epic fantasy

About Cast in Stone:

After her parents are murdered by a brutal warlord, Celia makes it her ultimate mission to bring him to justice, but she can't do it alone.

Rupert is a criminal mage whose sentenced execution is commuted if he agrees to serve as Celia's Guardian until her mission is complete.

But what looks like the perfect opportunity for them both quickly turns into the perfect catastrophe. In the fall out, she is betrayed by those she trusted most. Now on the run, Celia and Rupert find not only their lives in jeopardy, but also their hearts.

Torn between her old vow and a new love, Celia must choose justice...or vengeance. 

This is book 2 in the series The Conquest of Kelemir, following Winter's Fallen.

Excerpt:

First, the man knew nothing, endless nothing without beginning or end. It was dark and still and cold, undisturbed and deep. There was no thought, no sound, no feeling, no memory. There was nothing, and he, or whatever was left of him, could not be distinguished from it.

Then, as if from nowhere and all at once, there was pain, waves of pain buffeting the man like a pitiful leaf swept up in a storm, pain without relief and without escape. It lashed at him and tore through him, and worse than that, it burned. If it was a wind, it was a desert wind, scorching and bone dry, its pure heat scalding him, all of him. Still there was no thought, and the only sound he could perceive was the shrill howling of the wind that clenched him in its hot, merciless fist.

He felt a sudden, sharper pain across some part of himself, different from the wind’s torment and unidentifiable to his empty mind, and instinctively he gasped. The air that filled his lungs in answer was unexpectedly frigid and burned in a completely different way, and though he was not aware of it, he began to shake violently. He fought against taking another breath with a mindless desperation born of unthinking animal instinct, anything to avoid the cold and the pain, but as soon as the cold from that first breath began to subside, his lungs began to burn once more with the same fire that was consuming the rest of him.

He struggled, but he had no choice: he took another breath against his will. Again the cold, again the pain, again the howling of the wind that seared him on the outside even as he felt as though the air he’d just drawn in was freezing him on the inside. Again he fought against the urge to repeat the cycle, and again the urge conquered him. Over and over it repeated, unrelenting.

His first clear thought was a wordless prayer for the nothingness to claim him again.

It was not answered. 

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About A.F. Dery

A. F. Dery has loved the fantasy romance genre for many years. A voracious reader, when she had trouble finding the kind of stories she was craving- non-explicit but emotionally engaging romances, in interesting fantasy settings and featuring adult main characters with adult problems and responsibilities- she decided to write her own. She lives in the U.S. and enjoys reading, writing, music, and spending quality time with her family. 

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