A Pact of Dust

Betrayal. Anger. Revenge.

By: Joshua C. Cook

Narrated by: Pat Devon's voice replica

Betrayed. Broken. Reborn.

Once a hero, Kael Veyne walked the streets of Avelmar adorned in triumph. War-mage, lover to Lady Elira, he rose from humble birth to the kingdom’s highest honors—until a single night of courtly treachery destroyed everything. Accused of unspeakable crimes he did not commit, Kael is condemned to the kingdom’s deepest prison. There, beneath stone and shadow, something ancient whispers his name.

When power is taken, vengeance remains.

Transformed by forbidden magic—the last, desperate bargain with a primordial dust Lord—Kael claws his way back to the surface. But the city he returns to is not the one he lost. Nobles whisper of plague and rebellion. His betrayers rule unchallenged. And Elira, the woman he cannot forget, wears a crown beside his greatest enemy.

Now Kael walks among the living as Lord Mordain, a shadow-haunted legend becoming myth and nightmare. As kingdoms tremble and old gods stir, his quest for justice threatens to crack the seams of reality itself. But as love, memory, and vengeance collide, must he risk becoming the very monster they all fear?

Fans of dark, character-driven fantasy, tragic romance, and slow-burning revenge will find themselves enthralled by Pact of Dust, a tale of ambition, loyalty, and the true cost of power.

©2025 Joshua Cook (P)2025 Joshua Cook

Justice or Revenge?

I was entertained by this dark fantasy. I admired the writer's descriptive phrases which made the worldbuilding complex. I felt for Kael Veyne and all that he suffered. I liked that Kael's memory of his love offset his driven desire to find justice as this made him a more rounded character. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. I thought that the narration provided by Pat Devon's voice replica was interesting, but I missed the fluctuations an actual human voice would have provided. I was given a copy of the audiobook. I volunteered, without financial gain, to post this review which reflected my honest opinions regarding this audiobook.