Why I Wrote Dark Night of the Soul
There are some stories that don’t end when you think they do.
They go quiet for a while. They let you believe the war is over. They let the characters breathe.
And then, one day, they step out of the dark and say, Actually, we’re not finished.
That’s what happened with Dark Night of the Soul.
When I returned to Anna and Kincade, I knew this book needed to do something a little different emotionally. It wasn’t enough to simply continue their story. I didn’t want to write “the next adventure” just because there was more plot waiting in the wings.
I wanted to ask a bigger question.
What happens after survival?
What happens after the battles that should have broken you?
What happens after you’ve stared down death, Hell, prophecy, loss, and the end of everything—and somehow, impossibly, you are still here?
A lot of stories end at the moment of triumph.
The evil is defeated. The lovers choose each other. The dust settles.
But I’ve always been fascinated by what comes next.
Because real love does not begin and end in the grand gesture. Real love has to survive the aftermath. It has to survive trauma. Memory. Fear. The quiet moments when no one is watching and your body still remembers danger even when your heart wants peace.
That is what Dark Night of the Soul is really about.
After the War
This book gave me the chance to explore Anna and Kincade in a new way.
Not just as warriors. Not just as survivors. Not just as the people who save the world.
But as two people trying—maybe for the first time—to build something that looks like a life.
Something soft. Something real. Something worth protecting.
And of course, because I am who I am, the moment they begin to touch that peace, I threaten it.
Naturally.
Not because I wanted to punish them. Not because suffering is the point. But because peace is expensive when you’ve lived through war.
Safety is not just a location.
It is emotional. It is relational. It is spiritual.
And for characters like Anna and Kincade, safety is not something that simply appears one day and stays put. It is something they have to choose, fight for, and build again and again.
That became the heartbeat of this book.
A Different Kind of Danger
I also knew I wanted Dark Night of the Soul to shift the shape of danger.
In earlier parts of the Dream Walker world, the threats can feel mythic. Cosmic. Biblical. Apocalyptic.
But in this book, I wanted the danger to feel closer. More invasive. More intimate. More personal. Not just monsters in the dark, but people watching the windows. People studying patterns. People looking for the soft points in a home. In a family. In a love story.
That kind of threat unsettles me in the best storytelling way because it’s not just about destruction.
It’s about violation. It’s about being seen by the wrong people. It’s about someone deciding your life is not yours. And for Anna, especially, that matters.
She has fought so hard for agency. For truth. For the right to stand in her own life and not be managed, manipulated, or used.
So placing her in a story where control becomes the weapon felt deeply true to her arc.
And Then There’s Kincade
He is one of those heroes who feels everything deeply and says almost none of it unless he is pushed to the edge. So writing this book meant exploring what happens when a man built for protection is given something he cannot bear to lose.
Not an abstract mission. Not a duty. Not a war.
A home. A woman. A future. A life that begins to feel possible.
That is terrifying for someone like him.
And delicious for someone like me.
The Heart of the Story
At its heart, Dark Night of the Soul is about love under pressure.
It’s about the cost of being known. It’s about what survives when the world comes for you again. It’s about devotion, but also fear. It’s about wanting peace and knowing peace has a price.
It’s about the fragile, brave decision to keep building a life even when you know exactly how much can be taken.
So that’s why I wrote this book.
Because I wanted to explore what happens after survival.
Because I wanted to write love that feels lived in, not just declared.
Because I wanted to test my characters where they are strongest—and where they are most vulnerable.
And because I believe some of the most powerful stories are not about falling in love.
They’re about what happens when you already have.
And now you have to fight to keep it.
Dark Night of the Soul begins the War of the Brotherhood trilogy continuing Anna and Kincade’s story in the Dream Walker universe. If you’re new to the series, start with Before the Dark or Call of the Dark. If you’re already caught up, grab Dark Night of the Soul today.
