Embers in the SALT

Syra, known in the fighting pits as the “Greykiss,” has spent years trying to leave that life behind. But in New Merserat, a monster’s reputation is a debt that’s never fully paid, and when someone from her past returns, Syra is pulled back toward the violence she thought she had escaped.

Then there is Lienne Blumaker—a seemingly ordinary young librarian troubled by unexplained headaches, and one of the few people who sees the woman behind the reputation.

When House Saltbird offers Syra a lucrative security contract at its remote Salt Field, the danger seems familiar enough: sabotage, hired blades, men willing to kill for coin. Instead, she finds herself among a mercenary crew that neither trusts nor wants her, while something far stranger moves through the white expanse beyond the camp.

As fear closes in and the mystery deepens, Syra must decide whether survival still means keeping everyone at a distance—or whether some bonds are worth becoming vulnerable for.

A literary, character-driven dark fantasy of mercenary tension, slow-burning intimacy, hard-won trust, and the monsters people become—and believe themselves to be.