Families are vanishing from one of humanity’s last surviving cities. By morning, the records say they were never there.

The empty homes are sealed. The records are wiped clean. The administration calls it routine.

Savren has spent years carrying messages for the people who govern the city, delivering orders through Ashkyr’s halls while quietly remembering what everyone else is told to forget. Missing families. Altered records. Doors no one is allowed to open.

Then an assignment sends him beneath the city, into chambers he was never meant to see.

What he finds there ties the disappearances to a secret buried for generations. Before he can understand it, Savren is forced beyond the barrier with a stranger who knows the deadlands, knows his city’s lies, and refuses to give him the answers he needs.

Outside, there are no roads to follow. Distance cannot be trusted. A landmark near enough to touch may still be miles away, and anyone stranded past the barrier may not survive long enough to turn back.

To return home, Savren will have to survive the world beyond the city and uncover why Ashkyr’s rulers are willing to kill to keep the missing forgotten.

What they have hidden reaches far beyond the families who disappeared.

A dark epic fantasy for readers who crave:

Mystery-driven fantasy built around sealed homes, erased records, and forbidden places

Observant protagonists who notice what everyone else ignores

Dangerous journeys through a world where distance cannot be trusted

Slow-building trust between reluctant allies

Revelations that reframe the history and survival of an entire world

Perfect for fans of mystery-driven epic fantasy, hostile worlds, dangerous secrets, and revelations that change everything.

The Broken Hold is the first book in Stone and Strain, a dark epic fantasy duology where every answer reveals a deeper lie, and surviving the truth may be more dangerous than never finding it.