Ashes in Orbit

About the Story

Damascus al-Zahir, a scarred elven pilot, seeks solace in the galaxy's most infamous pleasure house, where a mysterious client offers him something he's never known — and a night he'll never forget. But when Damascus discovers his lover is General Jian Wei, commander of the Zorelian armada and architect of his people's suffering, their fragile connection shatters. Betrayed and captured, Damascus becomes Jian Wei's prisoner aboard the enemy flagship, tortured for intelligence he doesn't possess while nanites in his blood broadcast a signal neither can silence. Bound by an honor code that prevents him from killing the man who stands against the armada, Jian Wei is trapped between the duty that defines him and the impossible pull of the warrior he can't bring himself to destroy. As both their fleets close in on each other, Damascus must navigate the wreckage of trust, the weight of command, and a war that demands he make an impossible choice — choose between his own people, and the life of his enemy.