In the gladiator’s arena of blood and death, magic cuts deeper than steel.
Stolen from the streets and condemned to battle as a gladiator, Killien survives by deceit and subterfuge. He must play the role of “Killer,” the prince’s savage, bloodthirsty champion.
Undefeated in battle, Killien wields a secret advantage: the magic enhancing his weapons and fueling his attacks. The cost of losing carries a price worse than death.
A wager between his vindictive master and a conspiring rival pits Killien in a fight to the death against a mysterious warrior —one he has no hope of defeating.
A suicidal mission. A cataclysmic power. A darkness that threatens to consume them all.
Killien is hell-bent on accompanying the Battlemages beyond the Black Wall to satisfy the demands of a battle-weary king, spite the council who thwarts him, and redeem himself from his dark past.
That alone promises to be a perilous mission, one that has killed hundreds of men before him.
But when a Seer predicts the birth of a child that will unite the world or destroy it, and assassins come for Killien and his family, he must do everything in his power to protect those he loves, even if it means giving into the monster he is feared to be.
Luthen, a recluse necromancer, preys on young women to perfect his death magic. All of them blond, mirror copies of his ex-wife. One last ritual and his preparation will be complete.
But when Luthen sees his true target in the market conspiring with the Mage Hunters, he will stop at nothing to claim what was lost.