In this explosive sequel to Godstorm, Rome is burning and no one escapes the Colosseum.

Fuelled by oil and ruled by spectacle, the Empire is on the brink. Godfires rage beyond the city walls, and the gods demand sacrifice.

Livy, the child who could shatter empires, is now in Rome, claimed as ward to the Empress. But protection comes at a price. As her fate slips ever further from Arrow's grasp, Arrow is dragged back into the savage theatre of the Colosseum, forced to fight once more as a gladiatrix before a roaring, blood-hungry empire.

To reach her daughter, Arrow must sell the only thing Rome values: violence.

In this arena, death is ritual. Opponents rise and fall in a haze of sand, blood and steel, each more lethal than the last. But most dangerous of all is Barro: the ex-lover she can no longer trust. The one man who knows Arrow's every weakness and now stands across the arena as her enemy.

As the Imperial family tightens its grip, a darker truth emerges. The fires consuming the world are no accident. And Livy is at the centre of a sacrifice that could destroy a thousand-year Empire.

As the sand runs red and the crowd cries out for more, Arrow must decide what she is willing to become: a mother… or a monster.

She Is The Sacrifice.



Solitaire Townsend is a climate expert by day, and storyteller by night. After decades of teaching governments, global brands and even movie studios how to communicate sustainability, she now has stories of her own to tell. She regularly blogs for Forbes, has a popular TED talk, and wrote the critically acclaimed non-fiction book The Solutionists. While some of her characters might not know that they are 'LGBTQIA+' or 'neurodivergent', Solitaire does because she's also both. She lives in London, and once visited an oil-rig in the Amazon, which caught on fire. Visit www.solitairetownsend.com