In a place where every desire could be purchased, hers was the one thing forbidden.
The Garden cultivated a Rose for every fantasy.
Red. Blue. Black. White. Every shade a different hunger. Every appetite served, for the right price. The nobility called it a club. A sanctuary. A harmless indulgence. They drank there. Laughed there. Lost themselves there. They left with stained consciences and empty purses—and yet always returned for more.
Tanya knew what the colors meant. She wore one.
They called her Red—Common. Affordable. The color patrons reached for without thinking twice. She kept her head down. She kept her secret buried. She kept herself alive by becoming exactly what they needed her to be. And it almost worked.
Ademai has spent years playing the Garden's game better than anyone—patient, beautiful, and absolutely lethal beneath the surface. He arrives to find his world in flames and his heart in ruins. In the ashes of the fallen Garden, he encounters a Red Rose he barely knows—yet cannot look away as she tears herself apart in pursuit of vengeance.
Amid the devastation, something raw and dangerous ignites between them—forged in ash, built on ruin, and threatening to either save what remains of them or finish what the fire started.
But when the Garden forged everything they are, one question remains: can two Roses survive beyond its walls… or will the Garden claim them, even in its death?
The Tears of a Red Rose short story is the heart-rending introduction to the wickedly dark romantasy series A Garden of Death and Desire. Raw. Gritty. Scorching. With doors thrown wide open, the Garden serves every appetite—and devours everything in return.
If you enjoy books by Emily McIntire and Evelyn Hart, you'll die wretchedly happy in A Garden of Death and Desire.
The Garden is waiting… and it’s hungry. Enter at your own risk—start The Tears of a Red Rose now.
