BEHIND THE MASK OF WAR AND VALOR, BETRAYAL REIGNS WHERE IT BLEEDS…

Orynthia’s young king grievously takes his throne in the wake of regicide. From the city’s underbelly, unrest brews for the cross-caste convicted, while the haidrens hastily depart Bastiion to embark on the coronation tour for the realm’s new sovereign: Dmitri Korbin Thoarne.

Now the seated haidren for his House, Zaethan Kasim returns to the brutal mountains of his youth, where competition and conquest eagerly await his homecoming, unlike his dismissive father. There, Zaethan swiftly uncovers a Darakai radically changing. Committed to doing whatever it takes to protect Dmitri’s regime, he fights to remain alpha zà as Wekesa—his favored rival—prepares his challenge. To ensure he is named champion, Zaethan presents another deal to the highlander witch he despises. Yet in balancing fealty to both king and countrymen, Zaethan begins to doubt Darakai’s loyalties, as well as his own.

Luscia Darragh Tiergan is no stranger to the brutality of the south. However, after a harrowing attack, it is the shadows lurking behind it that slashes her dreams into a waking nightmare. Plagued by whispering omens, Luscia wrestles to silence her uncontrolled Sight. And as she is stalked out of Bastiion from within the Other, she must conceal the volatile manifestations from her Boreali guard but, most especially, the Darakaian haidren Luscia’s sworn to help.

Hosted by the House of War, the Quadren confronts an enemy more dangerous than the last. For where treachery stirs, it is not the crown that reigns, but the bloodshed encircling it.

• Reluctant Hero

• Dangerous Magic

• Secret Identities

• Clashing Cultures

• Generational Treachery

BEHIND THE MASK OF TRUTH AND HONOR, LIES SOW A CORRUPTED CREED...

Hunted and horrified, the Quadren escapes to the mist-choked House of Boreal—a remote highland citadel shrouded by harrowing tales of the occult. Meanwhile, mortal lies flood the crown city and propaganda plagues the streets. Insurgents infiltrate Bastiion, each lobbying for the vacant throne.

When Luscia returns to her homeland, she must convince the Elder Enclave to relinquish their elite warriors to Dmitri’s cause. In playing politics with her own people, the line between faith and zealotry quickly erodes, as does Luscia’s trust in her secretive aunt. As disappointment and rancor batters her from all sides, Luscia commits sacrilege and searches the brilliant power she’s struggling to control for the answers her mentor refuses to give, desperate to save Orynthia’s king before it’s too late.

Zaethan never thought he’d march his kinsmen into their place of nightmares. Yet marked a bastard refugee, he wears the issue of his heritage like a brand. Within the storied fortress of Roüwen, he and the Darakaians are met with untried hostility, and when a woman goes missing, the already fragile peace fractures. Persecution endangers everyone he loves. As loyalties splinter, Zaethan battles to prove his leadership to his prydes. Even more to himself.

Rivals turned reluctant rebels, both haidrens share a naivete to the changing shadow, to evil taking form. For it is the highlands where legend streams into reality—and in Boreal where when an ancient wrath is reborn, a more dangerous bright awakens.

• Reluctant Rebels

• Outlaw King

• Vigilante Vibes

• Emotional Flashbacks

• Power Progression

• Faith vs. Zealotry

• Dark Cabal

• Treehouse City

• Lethal Lies