The Steel Road (The Ardent Halo #1) by Edie James

SPFBO6

The world is divided, but mankind defied the sanctions, conjuring a passage from the Old World through the equatorial ring of flames and inhabiting the elven hemisphere. As this invasive species disseminates, conflict ensues, centuries pass, and an industrial revolution begins. Now, reparations must be made. A human-elf hybrid is murdered to spark a cleansing fire but denied passage to the heavens. Instead, Dreyah is reborn headstrong and impetuous, but more so than for any other teenager, uncertainty obscures her place in the world. Seeking revenge for her murder, Dreyah traverses a realm devastated by an old war between her two peoples, and the circumstances highlight her greatest dilemma; she must choose a side in the coming days. Years ago, Cambria’s king gifted Kennason to a foreign prince in a gesture of peace between their realms. But after the death of her second husband and a marriage of mutual distaste, Kennason returns to her homeland where steam and pistons charm the masses but magic is forsaken. Amongst family and an emerging romance, her contentment shatters when renegade wizards abduct Kennason and she learns her bestowment to the foreigner served as more than an overture for goodwill. When strange beasts begin menacing Cambria, history, prejudice, betrayal, and blood bind the footsteps of this exiled queen and murdered teen as they brace for the coming Old World storm in the first installment of The Ardent Halo saga.