Fire & Brimstone

by Talia Wall

After five years of pining for his coworker, Cara, humble accountant Akuma finally asks her to dinner. But hours before their first date, he’s brutally murdered by a pair of demons.

Death grants him a rare choice: continue to the afterlife and rest in peace, or return as a Reaper with a caveat: anyone who knows his true name controls the last piece of his fractured soul and can compel him to fulfill their dark agendas until the day they die, or they relinquish ownership.

Now a disfigured, masked specter, Akuma watches over Cara from the shadows and discovers a harrowing truth: his death wasn’t random, and whoever sent the demons is also after Cara—a descendant of a secret ancient bloodline of demon hunters known as Venators.

After her parents honed Cara as a weapon for an unknown threat throughout her childhood, she traded the sword for a nine to five at a prestigious corporation for some semblance of normalcy. But since Akuma’s death, she can’t seem to shake the unwanted attention of another employee, move past her grief, or escape the demons that haunt her dreams and eventually—her reality.

As demons close in on the keys to rip open the veil between worlds, Akuma must free himself and Cara must face her fears before they’re both sacrificed to shatter the gates of Hell.

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2026

About the author

Talia spent most of her life in North Carolina and had the lifelong dream of becoming an author since she was five. She not only loves to write but also to draw and paint. She has a loving husband and Persian cat named Thor who often interrupts her writing and painting sessions. She writes young and new adult, supernatural, fantasy, and dystopian genres with the intent to send powerful, relevant messages and warnings through fiction.