A mysterious well offers Lila hope for something her family desperately needs: water. In Ash & Eternity, V.M. Nunez turns that discovery into the doorway to a dangerous realm, where forgotten love and ancient magic reach across lifetimes.
For readers drawn to dark fantasy and romantasy, the premise carries an immediate pull. Lila’s dreams have always felt strangely personal, filled with impossible places, lost kingdoms, and eyes that seem to recognize her. Those visions follow her through an already difficult existence. She lives in a dystopian world where new metals are unavailable and water, food, and electricity are rationed. Survival gives her plenty to worry about before the past begins demanding her attention.
That everyday pressure gives her discovery emotional weight. She approaches the well with her family in mind, hoping she’s found additional water. What waits inside changes the scale of her concerns entirely.
A Portal, a Phoenix, and Two Kings Who Remember
The well transports Lila into a feudal world inhabited by dark creatures and shaped by ancient magic. It’s a startling journey for someone accustomed to scarcity and strict limits. Suddenly, she’s surrounded by forces whose histories stretch far beyond anything she remembers.
There, Lila discovers that she is the reincarnation of a powerful phoenix.
That revelation brings her unsettling dreams into sharper focus. The fragments that have haunted her belong to a life she once lived, and the people connected to that life have unfinished feelings of their own. Centuries earlier, she loved a king with the power to set the world ablaze. Her death left their story unresolved.
Two immortal rulers now believe she is their fated mate. A ruthless Demon King remembers the woman he lost, carrying knowledge that Lila has yet to recover. A fiercely loyal Werewolf King is prepared to burn kingdoms to protect her. Their devotion places her at the center of a struggle involving desire, memory, and competing loyalties.
The imbalance of knowledge makes this setup especially intriguing. Others can recognize Lila and attach meaning to her return while she’s still trying to understand herself. Every recovered memory could change how she sees a relationship, a promise, or the circumstances surrounding her previous death.
At the heart of that uncertainty is a compelling question: how much authority should an earlier lifetime hold over the person she has become?
V.M. builds the premise around that tension, giving Lila a deeply personal decision within a sweeping supernatural conflict. An ancient darkness threatens both worlds as her memories awaken. Her search for answers therefore carries consequences for the family she left behind and the realm that claims her.
The phoenix identity adds another layer to a story concerned with death, return, and unfinished promises. Rebirth opens possibilities, yet it also brings inherited attachments. Lila must work out what those connections mean to her now.
Readers who enjoy dangerous love, possessive immortal figures, and tangled histories have plenty to explore here. The emotional appeal rests in watching a heroine encounter a destiny that others already consider settled. She still has to decide whether she wants it.
About the Author
V.M. is an Arizona-based author, wife, mother of four, and bonus mother of one. Two cats and a dog complete a household she describes as full of love.
Her enthusiasm for storytelling reaches back to middle school, when she wrote summaries of television shows and movies. Her father was her first reader, and Twilight became an important early reading experience.
Motherhood brought a pause in college, reading, and writing. After her youngest child arrived, she gradually returned to those interests through repeated attempts and persistence. Ash & Eternity, her first romantasy, began during college and became a story she eventually revisited and finished. She’s also exploring dark academia and dark romance as she develops her voice.
When the Past Calls Her Name
Ash & Eternity brings together a resourceful heroine, a fractured history, and powerful figures whose feelings have endured across centuries. Available in Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon, it invites readers into Lila’s search for the truth behind her dreams. Her next choice could give an ancient love another beginning, with two worlds caught in the consequences.