After the Awakening Cover Reveal!

Above: The cover of After the Awakening, the fourth and final book in The Way of the Wielder series. See below for a detailed overview of what’s on the cover.

February 24, 2026

Before we get to general updates, let’s talk about why you’re really here.

First, a caveat:

If you’ve not read the first three books in The Way of the Wielder series, you will be subjecting yourself to spoilers if you continue reading this blog post. (In fact, just by seeing this cover, you’ve subjected yourself to spoilers, but there’s only so much I can control.) If you don’t enjoy spoilers, I suggest you skip this post for now and read the series from the beginning. If you don’t care about spoilers, carry on.

Cover Reveal

I knew two things about this cover from the start: that Jack would be the featured character, and that he would be facing the reader. This follows the same structure as Convergence of Connection, which was the intent (much like Mysteries of the Material’s cover follows the same structure as The Way of the Wielder’s).

But I was not prepared for how much I would swoon.

Feast Your Eyes on Jack

The fit physique, the forearm tattoos, the leather jacket over the trim vest, the jaw line, the slight curl to his lips, the gaze, the messy hair…

Seriously. Swoon. Worthy.

Anyway, there’s more to Jack here than meets the eye. First, you’ll see that he’s not holding a dagger in either hand. Instead, he’s Wielding Air with one, and holding a crown in the other. Both are new as of the end of Convergence of Connection, and play a vital role in his character development throughout After the Awakening. His clothing also foreshadows the inner conflict he has between his old self and new self.

Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the level of detail in that Air Column? The swirls show lovely rotation, and there are both wysps and flower petals zipping around. I love that aspect so much.

The Vignette

Because Jack is the focus character, Jaslan is naturally in the vignette. You see her here hovering over a cityscape, with wysps and light all around her. Something about the scene feels epic and powerful, and you’d be right. I love what my cover artist did with this, and I hope—after reading it—you’ll appreciate it, too!

The Title

I don’t usually call out the title when I do cover reveals, but this one feels like it’s doing more work than the others. Specifically, it appears to be glowing, which is just the coolest effect. I also love how it makes the wysps around Jaslan and crown in Jack’s hand seem brighter. I’m constantly amazed at the level of skill of my cover artist. Truly, she’s second to none.

The Background and Border

The background has a gray, almost pearlescent hue to it. If you’re reminded of the Air Sphere, that’s wholly intentional. If you’ve not picked up on the pattern, each book—and thus, each book’s cover—has an elemental theme associated with it. Water, Fire, Terra, and Air, respectively. This pattern is significant in multiple ways, most notably for the order that Jaslan awakens the elements. It’s also representative of her series-long character arc. Jack is also an Air Wielder, so him being the focus character for this last book has added meaning.

As for the border, we’re back to flowers for this book. Flowers are described throughout the series, but they hold a few different meanings for this book. They’re an important part of the setting, of course, and foreshadow where the last battle takes place. But they’re also a symbol of calmness and beauty. Jaslan and Jack are reunited, and they both (although Jack more so) appreciate the gentle and simple beauty of the world around them—in this book, and long after it’s over.

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And that, my dear readers, is the cover of After the Awakening! I hope you love it as much as I do. If you missed the blurb, check out my blog post from a couple of weeks ago, or view the page for After the Awakening. Stay tuned there for the preorder link, because it releases just one month from today!

Now For Some General Updates

In my previous blog post, I mentioned before that I was working on two stories. Here’s a quick update on where those stand.

Rise of Iron: When I began editing this book, I realized that I finished drafting it before I’d had any professional editing done of my work. Long story short, I’ve decided to rewrite it, rather than edit it in-document. This is a little more involved than other editing techniques, but I believe it’s what the story needs. And what the story needs, the story gets.

I anticipate completing the second draft of this by the end of April, although with the release of After the Awakening next month, we’ll see how that goes.

Cozy Standalone Fantasy: I’ve completed my outline, but I’ve not made any progress on writing it. Ideally, I’d be writing this book and editing Rise of Iron, but given that I’m rewriting the latter, that might not work. I’m still excited to work on this story, though, and anticipate getting start once Rise of Iron is drafted. Again.

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That’s all for now. Thanks for reading! Until next time, be well, and stay creative.

~Sarah