The Shadowborne Estate had burned to the ground.Its ruins yet smoldered on the mountain, the flames consuming centuries of blood and secrets. The assassin order was dead, its legacy torn to shreds and left on the wind in little more than its name ash.Kael should have felt free.Instead, as he stomped through the muddy streets of Duskfall, a city in which shadows bought and sold lives, he felt the awful sensation of nothing at all.Hunted.It had been three weeks since he, Selene, and Dain disappeared into the underworld, fleeing the Hollow Lords and the mercenaries who’d battled for the throne, the throne he’d turned down.Now there was no throne to sit upon.Only contracts. Only gold. Only the lawless realm of killers and thieves and Kael was back in it, like any other discarded blade-for-hire.He pulled his hood down when they stepped into the Bloodcoin Bazaar, an open market where assassins, smugglers and mercenaries didn’t barter with gold but favors, information and blood.Sele

The temple was silent.Not the peaceful kind.The kind that stood heavy in the air like before a storm, thick with the press of unspoken words and unsheathed steel.Kael and Calia stood a sword’s length from one another, eyes locked, bodies coiled like snakes about to strike.Once, she was his closest ally.They once fought side by side.Now only one would walk away.Selene and Dain stood at the edge of the ruined temple, unseen tension thrumming in their veins.Selene shifted uneasily. “You really think we’re not running in? ”Dain's hand was upon the hilt of his sword. "Not yet."Selene exhaled sharply. “I hate assassin politics.”Kael tuned them out.Because Calia was in motion already.First BloodWithout hesitation she lunged, her blade cutting toward Kael’s throat.He darted to the left, the strike narrowly missing him.But Calia never overextended.Her second blade glinted. Kael barely parried in time, the impact jolting his arm.She pressed forward. Faster. Sharper.In his life

A City That Breathes DeathDuskfall was built for murderers.Before Kael, the city unfurled as a writhing vein of stone and shadow, gutters criss-crossing in and out like arteries through a cadaver.It stank of iron and damp rot, of blood shed in silence, of secrets bought with gold.Kael had spent her childhood in cities like this.But this time he wasn’t there to vanish.He was here to hunt.Dain cracked his knuckles and peered down the could-be streets. “Remind me why we’re not just burning this place down?”Theroy section, adjusting her dagger belt with a smirk. “Because we’re out of oil.”Kael didn’t react. He thought of one thing and one thing only.Ronan.His brother.A man who was meant to be dead.Now the Hollow Lords’ greatest weapon.And if Kael wanted to end this war, he had to find him first.Selene glanced at him. “You’ve been quiet.”Kael let out a breath, eyes like blades of silver glass very sharp. “We need to move.”For the longer they waited, the closer the Hollow Lo

The Price of FireThe Black Spire still burned.Smoke traced a path up into the sky, writhing through the rooftops of Duskfall like the breath of a dying god. The flames had consumed it all the Hollow Lords’ hidden ledgers, their stores of weapons, their well-built secrets.But not Ronan.Kael wiped blood from his lips, breathing fast and thin. His ribs ached when Ronan’s blade broke skin, the crater shallow but seething. A reminder he hadn’t managed to stop this.Dain leaned on the stone parapet, watching the spreading fire. “Well. That was fun.”Selene sheathed her daggers. “Not the word I’d use.”Kael exhaled slowly. The Hollow Lords had hoped he would be careless.But they did not imagine he would incinerate their stronghold.Still, something felt wrong.Too easy.Too.A loud crash broke the night.A horn.Low. Echoing.Kael’s stomach tightened.Selene frowned. “That’s not a city watch signal.”Dain’s hand drifted to his sword. “No. That’s a war call.”Kael’s pulse quickened.The H

The Gallows Market was ablaze.Flames leapt from the shattered stalls, sparkling over puddles of blood and smashed weapons. Instead of the dying cries of mercenaries, the hollow measured footsteps of the Hollow Lords’ Executioners.They glided like wraiths, a dozen masked murderers in ebony plate, blade glimmering with liquid night.And at their center, caught between Kael and the only exit.Ronan.Kael bared his teeth, squeezing his sword so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His ribs screamed, his wounds burned like the fires of hell, but none of it mattered.Because this was a fight they could not avoid.Selene already stood by him, spinning daggers in her fingers. “Well, this is a disaster.”Dain cracked his neck. “Could be worse.”Selene shot him a sharp look. “How?”Dain smirked. “There could be 13 of them.”Kael kept his eyes on Ronan. But there was something unreadable that gleamed in his brother’s silver eyes.The Executioners had been on your tail. Waiting.For the order