THE THERMECINE ROAD
When Love Becomes the Most Dangerous Weapon of All
Regal Eldain thought he knew his enemy. He was wrong about everything.
Five years after watching his family destroyed, Regal is bleeding and desperate in the frozen wastelands when he encounters a mysterious woman named Nessa who offers him something he's never had: the training to fight back. She teaches him to harness thermecine energy, to channel his rage into devastating power, to become the weapon his enemies should fear.
But every lesson comes with a price he doesn't see.
As Regal grows stronger, Nessa guides his strikes against the Continental Authority's network-surgical attacks that feel like victories but somehow never bring him closer to his true target. The brilliant, beautiful woman sharing his bed seems to understand his pain, his need for justice, his dreams of making Shori Ashford pay for what she's done.
But Nessa has secrets that could destroy everything.
"The most effective weapons are those who believe they chose their target. A properly developed asset will pursue objectives with genuine conviction, never recognizing the careful architecture of their motivation." -Stonewake Group Internal Document
When an enhanced survivor warns Regal that his mentor may not be what she seems, he faces an impossible choice: trust the woman who's become his anchor, or confront the possibility that everything between them has been a lie. But by then, she's already taught him her most dangerous lesson: how to think like someone who sees people as tools to be used and discarded.
Some educations can't be undone.
Volume 1 of The Palisade Journals
A dark tale of manipulation and moral corruption that explores what happens when the person teaching you to fight becomes the enemy you should fear most.
The Thermecine Road chronicles Regal's transformation from broken survivor to dangerous weapon-and questions whether there's any difference between learning from evil and becoming it.
Content Advisory: Contains themes of psychological manipulation, intimate partner betrayal, and the gradual corruption of moral identity. Intended for mature readers.