The Cinderwrought Arsenal by Rachel Gainey

THE CINDERWROUGHT ARSENAL A Storm of Blades and Sorcery The night the sky over Vaelthys splits open and bleeds starlight, every weapon ever forged wakes with a will of its own, and Darien Vyrn's quiet life ends with it. Three years ago, a single failed commission cost Darien his family's name, his father's trust, and his own faith in the steel he was born to shape. He swore off forging anything sharper than a bread knife. Then a living dagger, etched with constellations and dripping liquid shadow, flies into his hand and speaks a name he didn't know he still carried. He is Emberforged, one of the rare few able to bind an awakened weapon without being consumed by it. And he is not alone in wanting what has just woken. The Onyx Synod means to reassemble a shattered god's armory and burn magic out of the world for good. The Shroudstriders believe the only mercy left is to destroy every piece of it, and every hand capable of wielding it, before that reassembly is ever complete. To survive the coming storm, Darien must gather a scattered, living arsenal: a warhammer that drinks lightning, a bow that fires memory instead of arrows, a gauntlet that rewrites the history of whatever it strikes. But every bond he accepts asks a price he cannot refuse to pay, a memory, a piece of who he was, a person he can no longer fully be. As the Arsenal nears completion, Darien begins to understand the terrible truth behind the god who shattered it. And that the final piece was never a weapon at all. It is a choice, one an immortal was too afraid to make himself, now bound into the blood of a disgraced smith's son who never asked to inherit it. THE CINDERWROUGHT ARSENAL is a high octane epic fantasy of living weapons, forbidden power, and a war fought as much within one man as around him, where every victory costs a memory, every bond exacts its price, and the line between hero and weapon of mass destruction is razor thin. How much of yourself would you trade to save everyone else?