Introduction: The gods are gone, but their blood still courses through royal veins, shaping empires long after their abandonment. Darrow Ghaldre, the feared Kingslayer King, seeks to annihilate every other monarch and their kin to break the divine grip on mankind.Now, twenty cycles later, peace decays as crops rot, beasts prowl, and whispers stir of god-blood that survived. Johanus Dhulos, once Ghaldre鈥檚 blade, now tends his fields in peace with his son Quintin. Until a shadow from the past comes hunting.The end of kings was only the beginning....