A Burning Storm

From USA Today bestselling author N.E. Davenport comes a tale of forbidden magic, second-chance romance, and deadly political intrigue—as two star-crossed heirs from rival dynasties are thrust together in a once-in-a-generation contest where the gods decide who rules, and old love proves harder to kill than old enemies.

The gods are watching. The Ascendancy Tournament has begun. And in Orlini, love has always been the most dangerous game.

On the glittering, treacherous peninsula of Orlini—where dynastic families wage war through politics, magic, and blade—the peace never lasts long.

Eight years ago, Sirena Duarte and Bastien Toussaint were a secret: a stolen engagement between an old-money heiress and a new-money heir, forged in love and shattered by blood. When Bastien’s father had Sirena’s sister killed, she didn’t wait to learn whether Bastien had known. She broke the engagement, buried her grief, and never looked back.

She’s been running ever since.

Now, the Gentry lords of Orlini have gathered for a chance at even greater power: to rise to the ruling Triumvirate…and possibility seize deification. And while Sirena has no delusions of godhood, a failed attempt to get her revenge on the Toussaints forces her back into the world she fled, but with the stakes much, much higher. Because losing means death. It also means losing to Bastien, who has joined the tournament as well…and Sirena finds that prospect worse than death.

But when other contestants—and members of their own families—begin dying one by one of a mysterious ailment in which the victim’s own magic consumes them—Sirena and Bastien must decide whether the past is a wound or a weapon, and whether the hunger between them is something to survive or something to surrender to.

Tropes:
• Star-crossed lovers/ Romeo & Juliet vibes
• Second chance romance
• LOTS OF YEARNING & SPICE!!
• Old Money vs. New Money
• Magical competition