Sometimes, true love is not the answer.

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A decade after the Second War, Aixauhan Alchemist Ying Cai-Li seeks to rekindle her relationship with her ex-lover, the Inabrian Oracle Anne Barberry. However, the war changed them both. Estranged by their losses, Cai-Li has gained a notorious reputation as the dark magic-wielding Blood Hawk and Anne barricades herself in a castle on a hill where her family's dark secrets lie. Rumors in the village say Anne is a monster, responsible for the disappearance of innocent visitors.

But when the two witches reunite and begin unraveling the mysteries of the village, it becomes clear that scars left by the war do not easily fade. Things are not as they seem. Old ghosts come back to haunt them. Past truths are revealed. Can the witches be each other's salvations or are they doomed to repeat the past that tore them apart?

Fans of The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon will fall in love with Dawn Chen's sapphic high fantasy epic about anti-colonialism, grief, generational trauma, and the cycles of war.