Two centuries after the King's return, the Amargosa Basin blooms where desert once ruled-and a glorified steward and a mortal engineer are about to discover a love neither expected.
Wren Halloway has spent two hundred and six years restoring the land she once watched die, certain that Scripture closed the door on romance for her forever. Rowan Ashworth is forty-five, Basin-born, and quietly aching for the kind of companionship everyone around him seems to find. When he's assigned to work beside Wren on the Basin's newest reservoir, their partnership is supposed to be practical-until sabotage threatens the region's lifeblood and forces them into dangerous, undeniable closeness.
As a hidden cell of dissenters pushes the Basin toward disaster, Wren and Rowan must confront not only the truth behind the attacks but the impossible pull growing between them. In a world where marriage no longer exists, can a glorified woman and a mortal man truly be joined-or will fear, doctrine, and danger keep them apart?
When the King Himself speaks, what will it mean for the two hearts who never dared hope for each other?
Note: This novel was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools.