THE LANTERN WITHOUT FLAME

She found the lantern. She didn't expect to find him.

Mira Asano has walked into a lot of cities carrying nothing but her watercolours and the stubborn belief that moving forward is better than standing still. The Lantern District is just the latest stop - or so she tells herself. But when a mysterious unlit lantern leads her to the doorway of a dusty, beautiful bookshop and the most quietly guarded man she has ever met, standing still starts to feel dangerously appealing.

...and the man behind the counter is keeping secrets.

Elias Vale knows everything about the district's impossible lanterns - every documented case, every recorded miracle, every love story that has played out on his cobblestoned doorstep. He has spent eleven years writing it all down with meticulous, protective care. What he has never done is let any of it touch him. His shop. His journals. His careful, ordered, perfectly managed solitude.

Then a rain-soaked artist walks in carrying a lantern with no flame and proceeds to dismantle everything - one evening walk, one devastating painting, one inconvenient feeling at a time.

The lantern between them refuses to light.

Which means something is unfinished.

Which means one of them - or both - is still running from the very thing they want most.

Now Elias has to decide if a man who has spent his whole life recording other people's stories is brave enough to step inside one of his own.

And Mira has to decide if the woman who is always leaving has finally arrived somewhere worth staying.

The Lantern Without a Flame.
Some lights take longer. They're worth the wait.