"Forged Slumber" by Gerard Stahl

What if the person you were meant to love existed in a world you were never supposed to find?

Bennett Tiggs has always believed in heroes.

But when a strange dream leaves him haunted by a word he cannot explain—Renderis—his ordinary life in the coastal town of Cobalt Cove begins to unravel.

A mysterious connection to his hospitalized friend Addie draws Bennett toward secrets surrounding an ancient magic known as the Veil, the boundary between the living world and something far darker. Soon, Bennett finds himself pulled into Renderis a twisted reflection of his hometown, where lost souls wander, memories can be manipulated, and nothing is quite what it seems.

There, Bennett discovers that he is not alone.

Five friends. Five mysterious roles.

The Sacrifice.

The Destined.

The Keeper.

The Vessel.

The Beacon.

As the boundaries between dreams, memories, and reality begin to collapse, Bennett finds himself drawn closer to Nate in a way neither of them can explain. What begins as an impossible connection becomes something deeper—a love that exists beyond the physical world and threatens to change everything Bennett thought he understood about his own life.

But someone created this connection.

Someone has been manipulating the story.

And the magic growing inside Bennett may be the key to either saving those he loves—or destroying them.

When the truth about Renderis finally emerges, Bennett must confront the person behind it all and decide how much he is willing to sacrifice for the people who have become his family—and for a love that was never supposed to exist.

Enter Renderis.

Where dreams have consequences, souls remember what the living forget, and love may be the most powerful magic of all.

"Forged Slumber" is Book One of the Tides of Renderis trilogy, a fantasy romance of magic, mystery, found family, impossible love, and the dangerous space between life and death.

 

About the Author

Gerard Stahl is an author, educator, husband, and father who has spent more than twenty-five years helping young people discover the power of storytelling.

Gerard writes stories about ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances, characters shaped by friendship, love, loss, difficult choices, and the secrets people carry. His psychological thriller, "The Paper Cut Manifesto", explores the darker corners of the human mind, while his fantasy series, "Tides of Renderis", blends mystery, ancient magic, found family, and slow-burn romance across two connected worlds.

When Gerard isn’t writing or teaching, he can usually be found spending time with his family, dreaming up new characters, or wondering what might exist just beyond the world we can see.