The Weight of Nothing

A M/M Mafia Romantasy Novel

By: Marian Black

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

For thirty years, Cassian has protected his town from the corrupted forest's monsters—at the cost of every positive emotion he possessed.

At seventeen, Cassian walked into the cursed woods and made a desperate bargain: his joy, his love, his hope—everything that made life worth living—in exchange for the power to keep his people safe. Now, decades later, he rules the town's underworld with cold precision, feeling only anger, fear, and emptiness. He's become as dangerous as the creatures he fights against.

Then Kael arrives, bound to work off his brother's debt, and sees past the monster to the boy who sacrificed everything.

Former town guard Kael Therris is too smart, too stubborn, and too observant for his own good. He discovers the truth of Cassian's curse and refuses to accept that the hollow man before him is all that's left. Against every logical instinct, Kael begins training the townspeople to defend themselves—building toward the day when Cassian's curse-bought protection is no longer necessary.

Because if the town doesn't need Cassian's protection, the curse can finally break.

But thirty years of suppressed emotion doesn't return gently. As the curse cracks and Cassian begins to feel again, he's terrified of the flood that's coming. He'd rather die fighting monsters in the forest than face the weight of what he's done and what he's lost.

Kael will have to prove that freedom is worth the pain—and that some things are worth feeling, even when they hurt.

A high-heat MM romantasy about sacrifice and redemption, emptiness and healing, and learning that being human—messy, broken, feeling—is better than being a monster, no matter how necessary that monster once was.

Content notes: Explicit sexual content, violence, emotional trauma, on-page panic attacks, suicidal ideation, and themes of recovery from emotional abuse. HEA guaranteed.