Ash and Scars (The Freebooters Book 13)

Epic fantasy. Grimdark, and elements of Dark Fantasy. Romance and occasional spice. Deep characters and long plot arcs. Mercenaries. Welcome to the Freebooters.

The dragon is dead. The smoke has cleared. But what remains are ash... and scars. Half a year after their most brutal campaign, the Freebooters are alive, but far from whole. Their keep lies abandoned and in ruin. Friends are gone. The quiet that follows victory leaves too much room for grief.

Lincoln, now captain in truth, bears the title without the glory. Every decision is perilous, and the loneliness of command is starting to settle deep. Andri feels it too, as she trains the next wave of recruits, strong, eager, but nothing like the family they lost. She tells herself this is what survival looks like, even as the ache of absence lingers.

Eruch, the Twilight Blade, has carved out a fragile peace beside Coella, a woman as weathered as she is wise. Together, they’re building something more than recovery, something rooted in honesty, healing, and the hard-won right to start again. But peace has a price. When a son from the past returns with questions and consequences, the fault lines begin to crack open again.

In the aftermath of dragonfire, Ash and Scars offers no easy answers, only the long road forward. Through linked stories of sorrow, strength, and second chances, the thirteenth Freebooters novel explores what comes after the monsters are slain, and what it truly means to endure. The battle ended at the dragon’s feet. But the hardest part has just begun.