For twenty years, Belaric has been the perfect blade. He belongs to the Black Vow, a brotherhood of assassins raised to kill the marked-common-born children with divine gifts. He was taught to believe his bloody work was a holy mission, a necessary evil to keep the peace. He never questioned his orders. He never hesitated. But the ghosts of the innocent he slaughtered have never left him. Their cries linger in his mind, and the weight of their lives has settled deep into his bones.
But now, a new threat has emerged. The nobles who once wielded the Black Vow as their enforcers are turning their knives on their own kind. And Belaric, who has spent a lifetime serving a lie, is pushed to his breaking point. He longs to leave the Vow behind, to escape the shadows and find a future he was never meant to have.
But escape is a luxury the Black Vow has never allowed.
Now, with a child on the way, the price of his freedom is higher than he ever imagined. To sever the vow is to invite death. But to remain means betraying his last chance at redemption. As the Blavk Vow turns on its own, Belaric is forced to make a final, impossible choice.
The Black Vow raised him. They forged him into a weapon. Now, he must turn that blade against the hands that wield it.