The Warden's Forbidden Apprentice
A second-chance fantasy romance

About this book:

Corin Vance wears the silver cuff of an Enforcer—a magical leash that burns hot whenever outlaw aether flares near. Three years ago, the man who taught him to hear the world's hidden geometry vanished into winter fog, leaving Corin to choose the Warden's oath or the salt mines. Now Rowan has returned, stealing kinetic force from the Royal Mint's vaults and leaving clues only his former apprentice can read: a slate tile in a hovel's chimney, a brass key in a drowned dye-vat, a note scrawled in purple ink that still smells of pine resin and clover. *Little bird*, it calls him. *The fire is lit.*

Commander Teresa gives Corin twenty-four hours to bring Rowan in before the capital's witch-finders burn the district down. But every rune Rowan leaves is a lesson Corin swore to forget, every secret cache a test of the forbidden grammar they once shared. Kaelen, Corin's ruthless rival, smells treason on him; the High Council demands blood; and the cuff on Corin's wrist grows warmer with each step toward the Sluice-Gate where Rowan waits at dawn. To catch his mentor, Corin must decide whether the law he serves is justice—or just another cage.

In a city stacked on secrets and steam, where magic is measured in foot-pounds and loyalty is forged in ash, the line between warden and outlaw shatters. *The Warden's Forbidden Apprentice* is a second-chance fantasy romance where the most dangerous spell isn't the one that cracks viaducts—it's the one that brings a dead man's voice back into your blood.