The Steel Road

A ring of flames divides the world, but mankind defied the sanctions, conjuring a passageway across and inhabiting the elven hemisphere. As this invasive species disseminates, conflict ensues, centuries pass, and an industrial revolution begins. Now, reparations must be made.
 
A human-elf hybrid is murdered to spark a cleansing fire but denied passage to the heavens. Instead, Dreyah awakens from death headstrong and impetuous but stifled by alienation; the dead should not return. With her elven cousins and human stepbrother, she hunts her murderer across a land devastated by an old war between her two peoples. And Dreyah realizes her greatest dilemma; she must choose a side in the coming days.
 
Years ago, the king gifted Kennason to a foreign prince as a bride to bridge the sea between their realms. But after the death of her second husband and a marriage of mutual distaste, Kennason abandons her station to return home. Reunited with family, she grasps contentment and a novel romance. But when abducted by renegade wizards, Kennason uncovers a thread of truth in the fabric of her young betrothal; reprisal wove the king’s overture for goodwill.
 
When strange beasts menace the lands, history, prejudice, betrayal, and blood bind the footsteps of this exiled queen and murdered teen on the roadway to war in the first installment of The Ardent Halo saga.