The gods are dying, and their death-throes fall as tears of fire that rot everything they touch. Thea is the last keeper of the last temple, pouring morning water on stones no one worships anymore, when the god of war falls out of the sky into her courtyard. Aethon is mortal now, bleeding out his divinity through wounds that will not close, and he came to her temple because it was the last lit place in the world. She has carried a hidden spark her whole life without knowing it. He has carried the burden of holding back the Devourer for 10,000 years. And the only way to re-seal the prison at the end of the world requires both of them, a god and a mortal, giving everything they are.
The road runs through corrupted lands, drowned cities, and the White Waste at the edge of the world. Along the way, the enemy they are running from becomes less simple, and the love they are running toward becomes the only thing that can save them. He has loved and buried every mortal he ever touched, and he swore he would never love again. She has spent 3 years keeping a fire for no one at all. The Devourer wants to be fed, and the seal that will hold it has to be made of the one thing neither of them knows how to give away, which is the whole of themselves, freely, to someone who could lose them.
Inside this mythological romance, you'll discover:
— A slow-burn love story between the last keeper of the world's fire and the god who fell toward it
— A journey across a dying world that is trying to heal itself
— A Devourer that is not evil, only hungry, and a seal that has to be fed instead of closed
— An oracle, a map of wounds, and the weight of a goddess's hidden spark
— A choice at the end of the world where love is the only thing left that is not broken
Because the gods never knew how to give. The mortals who loved them did.

Ella Winslow

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