A World Beyond the Wall Awaits: Kara Toews Joins Wicked Ink with Where The Fire Burns, Book One of The Fifth Order Trilogy
Wicked Ink Publishing is excited to announce the signing of Kara Toews, an accomplished fiction writer, editor, and educator whose debut fantasy novel, Where The Fire Burns, marks the beginning of an extraordinary new trilogy, The Fifth Order.
Set in a realm divided by an ancient Wall and ruled by the echoes of prophecy, Where The Fire Burns is a tale of fire, vengeance, and awakening. It follows Ren Sorra, a young woman raised on fear and obedience, who dares to defy the laws that bind her world. Beyond the Wall lies everything Ren has been taught to despise, the Alyrians, the supposed monsters responsible for her mother’s death. But when Ren crosses that forbidden border and discovers the truth, the fire she carries within threatens to change the fate of both sides forever.
With the power to summon violet flame, a gift foretold to bring either unity or ruin, Ren must navigate a land of shadowed loyalties, ancient magics, and a prophecy that burns brighter than she can control. As her choices set kingdoms ablaze, Ren’s heart becomes the final battlefield: between vengeance and mercy, between the world that raised her and the one that might yet save her.
Toews’s storytelling is a masterful blend of lyrical prose, elemental magic, and emotional depth. Where The Fire Burns invites readers into a richly woven world of hidden histories, powerful magic, and characters driven by love, loss, and destiny. Themes of found family, forbidden power, and the courage to defy fate resonate through every page, setting the stage for a trilogy that explores what happens when prophecy meets choice, and when the first spark refuses to die.
Kara Toews brings her unique voice and imagination to this sweeping debut. Based in Calgary, Alberta, she teaches writing at Mount Royal University, inspiring new storytellers while crafting her own worlds filled with wonder and fire. Her short fiction has appeared in Glass Buffalo, Half a Grapefruit Magazine, and The Danforth Review, often exploring identity, belonging, and the quiet magic found in the human heart. When she isn’t teaching or writing, she can be found roaming forest trails, exploring local bookshops, or fueling her creativity with strong coffee and pumpkin pie.
With Where The Fire Burns, Toews lights the spark of a series that promises to capture the imagination of readers who love prophecy-driven fantasy, fierce heroines, and worlds where every choice carries the weight of fire.
Where The Fire Burns, Book One of The Fifth Order trilogy, coming soon from Wicked Ink Publishing.
The prophecy spoke of fire. It never warned about her heart.
There are three hard truths about the Wall.
One, no one is allowed near it.
Two, no one can cross or destroy it.
And three, if anyone does, the Alyrians will kill them.
Ren Sorra has spent her life obeying those rules. The Wall keeps her village safe, or so she’s been told, from the Alyrians, the monsters who murdered her mother. Shunned by her people, Ren keeps her head down, gutting fish by day and dreaming of vengeance by night. But when she uncovers a strange double-ended key and a message hinting that her mother’s death was a lie, Ren does the unthinkable: she crosses the Wall.
On the other side, everything she’s been taught shatters. The Alyrians aren’t the monsters she expected, and Ren’s own blood burns with the secret magic she’s now forced to yield: the power to summon violet fire. A prophecy speaks of that fire bringing either unity or ruin to Alyria, and a shadowed figure known only as Reaver will stop at nothing to twist Ren’s power to his will.
To uncover the truth and survive this world, Ren must master her flames, confront the past, and decide who she truly is. If Ren opens her heart to the Alyrians and accepts her violet fire, she will lose her partner from her old life in the village. But if she refuses her new identity, she will not only fail her found family but also risk the lives of all the Alyrians she has been fated to save. Every choice burns, and if she cannot reconcile the hatred she carries with the magic that defines her, she may ignite the very war she was destined to prevent.
Where The Fire Burns is a spellbinding debut of resilience, betrayal, and the fierce light that survives where darkness reigns.
