Our Lady's War — Valery Keith

Book 7 of the Our Lady of Joy series.

As news comes of an arriving delegation from the Marches tasked with repairing relations between nations, Lira vows not to lose the life and people she so greatly loves, Rease chief among them.  Yet even as they anxiously wait for the worst of the prophesy to be revealed in reality, Rease throws himself into his role as a mentor for troubled boys, even recruiting Blake's help as they expand the program to include animal-assisted therapy, while Jonas and Dove focus on holding together the family that they have built, hoping it will be enough.

Now very worried about what the coming conflict may mean to him as an individual, Thomas finds himself swamped with doubt once more about being titled Our Lady's Warlord, even as Monifa wonders if the coming war will deliver her just punishment for all her past sins against Our Lady.  As Violet prepares to become Our Lady's Flame to defend her homeland against invasion, Iranti battles the forces of fate itself in an effort to determine more their future, while Mouse finds sudden value in returning to his former profession as an assassin now that all he loves is threatened.

But when their efforts to delay the war prove futile, Our Lady's family prepares for the fight of their lives.