Her heart or her crown; she cannot have both.
Saritrah cannot allow herself to fall in love with the Oracle; a woman who cannot hold a spear and who hesitates to kill. Before their deaths during the insurrection, Saritrah's parents taught her three things; loyalty is greater than love, trust no one, and only the strongest deserve to live. Saritrah is on a quest to take back her kingdom, and her people need a warrior queen—not someone weakened by love.
The Oracle has given her a path back to the throne: find a lost city, obtain an ancient artifact with unimaginable power, and kill those standing in her way, even if it might set a disastrous prophecy in motion. But the insurrectionists are not her only enemies. Her brother also survived, and he wants the artifact. While Saritrah seeks to avert calamity, he is courting it.
Saritrah must give up everything—her beliefs, her vision of the future, and perhaps even her crown—if she's to save herself, her kingdom, and the Oracle.
Smoke and Steel is a sword and sandal novel perfect for fans of Xena: Warrior Princess who enjoy morally gray heroines on a redemption arc and sapphic characters being messy. It is the third book chronologically in the Scions and Shadows series but can be enjoyed in any order.
Note: This book contains characters who use gender neutral pronouns such as they / them / their and lesbians who use he / him.
