The Cage of Time (Paperback)

Michael Craig Enever

ISBN 13: 9798245832913

Published by Independently Published, 2026

About this Item

Paperback. When time becomes a cage, only blood decides who can escape.For over three centuries, the kingdom has not changed.Children are born, kings rule, armies march-and when forty years pass, the world quietly resets. No one leaves. No one ages beyond their allotted span. And no one remembers the moment time corrects itself. except the mechanisms that enforce it.Erin has lived her life in obscurity. Raised by the church, trained as a scribe, she has learned to survive by being invisible. But when she uncovers a sealed codex written in blood and bound by forbidden magic, she discovers the truth of her inheritance: royal blood, a mage's legacy, and a fate entwined with the clock that imprisons the realm.The clock was never meant to preserve life.It was built to contain a stolen fragment of a dragon's heart-power torn from a god and bound with gold, blood, and sacrifice. Its creation required betrayal, cruelty, and a price far greater than its makers ever admitted. Now its architect's daughter is the only one who can unmake it.To do so, Erin must confront the king who ordered her mother's death, the immortal administrator who enforces history through terror, and a system that punishes deviation by aging its victims to dust in moments. She must decide whether mercy is possible without forgiveness-and whether freeing time will destroy the world it has held in place.As ancient worshippers rise to defend the lie they have bled for, armies march beneath banners forgotten for centuries, and a dragon stirs beneath stone and opal, Erin learns the final truth written in the Codex: What is bound by blood can only be freed by blood.A dark, morally driven fantasy of time, power, and consequence-where immortality is a sentence, balance demands sacrifice, and freedom has a cost measured in centuries. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9798245832913

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Cage of Time (Paperback)
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798245832913
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

When time becomes a cage, only blood decides who can escape.

For over three centuries, the kingdom has not changed.

Children are born, kings rule, armies march—and when forty years pass, the world quietly resets. No one leaves. No one ages beyond their allotted span. And no one remembers the moment time corrects itself… except the mechanisms that enforce it.

Erin has lived her life in obscurity. Raised by the church, trained as a scribe, she has learned to survive by being invisible. But when she uncovers a sealed codex written in blood and bound by forbidden magic, she discovers the truth of her inheritance: royal blood, a mage’s legacy, and a fate entwined with the clock that imprisons the realm.

The clock was never meant to preserve life.

It was built to contain a stolen fragment of a dragon’s heart—power torn from a god and bound with gold, blood, and sacrifice. Its creation required betrayal, cruelty, and a price far greater than its makers ever admitted. Now its architect’s daughter is the only one who can unmake it.

To do so, Erin must confront the king who ordered her mother’s death, the immortal administrator who enforces history through terror, and a system that punishes deviation by aging its victims to dust in moments. She must decide whether mercy is possible without forgiveness—and whether freeing time will destroy the world it has held in place.

As ancient worshippers rise to defend the lie they have bled for, armies march beneath banners forgotten for centuries, and a dragon stirs beneath stone and opal, Erin learns the final truth written in the Codex:

What is bound by blood can only be freed by blood.

A dark, morally driven fantasy of time, power, and consequence—where immortality is a sentence, balance demands sacrifice, and freedom has a cost measured in centuries.