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.