Ashes of Regret: A Misbegotten Novel

On the Summer Solstice, Mesopotamian gods break free from their celestial prison in a series of destructive firestorms. Called "The Misbegotten" for their pettiness and cruelty, these liberated gods immediately carve out territories using their etemmu, or life-force, to advance their selfish interests. Each territory becomes a reflection of the values of the ruling god or goddess: commerce, weather, beauty, etc. Some of the dystopias are more clear than others. A clever-but-impulsive human survivor in the weather god's territory, Tamaki Hayashi, has never credited her grandmother's stories about plant magic until desperation forces her to discover her own plant-bending powers. Threatened and alone, Tamaki has no one to guide her through learning her power. Anger and rage compel her to tap blood magic in shoving the spirit of her dead soul-mate into a rescued fox. An, the reigning tyrant for her territory, confronts and berates Tamaki for her forbidden actions. He exiles both Tamaki and the altered fox, who calls himself "Scout," to an adjacent territory belonging to rival god Enil. When Tamaki and Scout are captured for invading Enlil's territory, Tamaki has to decide whether addiction to blood magic is worth the chance for freedom. Sometimes, being a villain is the only way out