Breaking the Archmage

Sera Wren was a mage once. Eleven years ago the Archmage Iskander Vane burned that out of her, and she has spent every year since sharpening an iron knife and working down a list of names. His is the last one. But the man in the tower is not the man she remembers. He is thin, sleepless, holding a country together with spells that are eating him alive — and he has been waiting for her, specifically, for reasons he will only explain if she agrees to stay. There is something loose in the world that feeds on magic and cannot be killed by it. Iskander made one unenchanted weapon, eleven years ago, and then let her walk out the door. A classic high fantasy romance about a knife, an apology, and a country that no longer needs either of them.