Never the Roses

The most powerful sorceress in all the world comes face to face with her greatest rival in Never the Roses. The Dread Sorceress Oneira has decided to retire. Weary from a lifetime of waging wars at the behest of kings and queens, she’s decided to embrace solitude. The only company she keeps is an enigmatic wolf from myth, a kestrel who holds the magic of a goddess, and a cat that almost seems to be made out of magic. But peace, it turns out, is not very interesting. On a whim, Oneira decides to sneak into the grandest library in existence—the domain of her greatest rival, the sorcerer Stearanos. When her rash decision to steal a book sets off a dangerous game of words and wits between the two sorcerers, Oneira soon realizes that a connection has formed between them. Yet Stearanos’s services are sworn to a cruel king, and when he’s commanded to wage war against the very queen Oneira once served, both Stearanos and Oneira must make difficult choices.