The battle for the blood of the kingdom begins with the fist of Slate Severance. The land of Malethya needs a hero. The people believe they live in a time of peace and prosperity, but a dreaded Blood Mage is wiping out villages and turning friends into mindless soldiers in a personal army. When a hero emerges to save Malethya, will the people recognize their savior before it is too late? Rising from obscurity, Slate Severance wins the king's tournament and gains acceptance into the elite fighting guards of the king's army to protect Malethya from its enemies; he didn't expect to find a Blood Mage within his own ranks. Suspecting that the Blood Mage is one of his powerful instructors, Slate must decide where to place his trust. Will he side with a pacifist wizard, a duplicitous war hero, an assassin who speaks only from the shadows, or a host of other powerful people infesting a dangerous land? Slate navigates a world of wizardry, forbidden magic, and cloak-and-dagger politics that trace all the way to the top of the kingdom. Slate will stop at nothing to unmask and defeat the dangerous Blood Mage, even if the process turns him from a hero into the most notorious villain in the land. The hero that Malethya needs may be the man they fear the most.