The Ashen Touch: a Dark Slow-burn Romantasy Septenary Dunes of Aethelgard Book

She reads the memories of the dead. He rules a kingdom of nightmares. Their deal was simple: thirty days, one fake engagement, zero feelings. Sera Ashén is a Memory Cleaner in the bowels of the Mechanica, scraping by on borrowed grief and the faint silver glow in her veins. Her only goal: save enough Marks to cure the sister who’s slowly dying in her arms. When she accidentally shatters a forbidden Nightmare Bottle, she comes face-to-face with Dante Vane—the Sleepless Lord of the Crying Abyss. He’s ancient. He’s merciless. And his eyes hold fractures of gold that haven’t seen light in three hundred years. He offers her a devil’s bargain: Pretend to be his dead betrothed at the Moonhold Palace. Steal the Aether Heart—a gem containing a living galaxy. And survive the seven factions who want them both dead. In exchange, he’ll give her the one thing she can’t afford: a cure. But the palace of illusions has its own rules. Forced to share a bed of Dream Sand in a frozen cave. Forced to dance a waltz that reveals every hidden desire. Forced to watch the ice-cold lord kneel in the desert and whisper: “Who did this to you?” Sera knows this is just a performance. She knows love is a luxury for people who aren’t running out of time. But when her touch awakens a secret buried in the Nameless Sand of her blood—a secret that could unravel the gods themselves—she realizes she was never the thief in this story. She was always the treasure. The Ashen Touch is the first book in The Septenary Dunes of Aethelgard series, a dark fantasy romance perfect for fans of Carissa Broadbent, Elise Kova, and slow-burn tension that will leave you gasping for air in a world made of sand, memory, and starlight.
“You spilled my dream, little ash.”
“I have excellent balance.”
One-click to enter a desert where every grain of sand remembers what you’re trying to forget.