An Ember in the Ashes

I WILL TELL YOU THE SAME THING I TELL EVERY SLAVE. THE RESISTANCE HAS TRIED TO PENETRATE THIS SCHOOL COUNTLESS TIMES. I HAVE DISCOVERED IT EVERY TIME. IF YOU ARE WORKING WITH THE RESISTANCE, IF YOU CONTACT THEM, IF YOU THINK OF CONTACTING THEM, I WILL KNOW AND I WILL DESTROY YOU. LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution. ELIAS is the academy s finest soldier and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor. When Laia and Elias s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could [...]have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.