K.T. Juniper

Captain Yasmina al-Ghazwani rules the sunlit shallows of Tissint, raiding imperial convoys with a wink and an agile twin-hulled catamaran. Commander Mazigh Boubara is her exact opposite: unyielding, honorable, and commanding the deadliest warship in the royal fleet. When Mazigh finally corners Yasmina amid the calcite reefs, their long-awaited showdown is shattered by a catastrophic beam of focused solar energy that threatens to burn their entire island kingdom to ash. Trapped within a blinding maze of hardened light bridges and deadly mirages, the pirate and the commander must combine their navigational genius to survive. Every sword-clash and close call draws them closer, turning a sworn enmity into a scorching romance on the high seas.

Master sail-trimmer Rong Kexin measures her life in sail-angles, wind-shear, and the clean kick of a calibrated matchlock. She has no room in her calculations for Yan Zhenyu, the swaggering corsair gunner she hauled out of a burning enemy brig. But when a magnetic storm strands their twin-keeled cutter in the void-shoals between worlds, survival demands total harmony. Their vessel runs on lodestone powder—an explosive art that demands flawless physical sync between helm and gun-deck. In the stifling heat of the powder room, every loaded charge heightens a dangerous, electric attraction. As imperial warships close in, Kexin and Zhenyu must yield to the intoxicating rhythm of each other's touch or let their worlds drift into fire.