A Forbidden Alchemy

At twelve, every child from Belavere's mining towns is tested on elemental magic drawn from idium ore. Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson take the test side by side, then learn together that whoever passes was chosen for it in advance. The one who is picked becomes an Artisan, wielding earth or fire or water; the one who is not returns to the mines as a Crafter.

The discovery splits them. Nina passes and rises through Belavere's Artisan ranks, gifted with a rare talent for earth. Patrick returns to the mining towns, where a generation of passed-over Crafters is building toward revolt against the city that chose their fate for them.

Years later the revolt breaks into open war, and Patrick's rebels capture Nina during a raid. She faces him again as an adult for the first time since the test: an Artisan officer across from a rebel leader. The pull between them is still there, under the years and the uniforms on opposite sides.

A Forbidden Alchemy opens the Artisan trilogy on a city built on a lie about who deserves to rule it. The romance is slow to develop and the class politics are given equal weight, so the reunion at the center of the book carries the same cost as the war around it.