Concept Art by Vincent Coviello

They call her Death’s First Wife, slayer of tyrants and thieves, a messenger of shadows. But long before she was made the instrument of her ancestors’ wrath, she was Amina, the noble daughter of a mighty house. After two years fighting monsters in a brutal war, she and the Rangers she led in battle return home as heroes, heralded by the thundering song of honor drums. But across the gilded cities of Akoyo, all is not as it seems. A century of blood feuds has left their country divided, the confederation of great houses held together by a thread. When Amina’s family calls for her to put down the sword and take her place in the great game of royal politics—the very game that cost her mother her life—she prepares a daring scheme to defy them. But the gods have other plans.

Enter the mysterious stranger.

He calls himself a prince, the heir to a long-lost city at the edge of the world. Prodigal son or useful puppet, his cause will either be the key to securing Akoyo unity or the dagger that rips the nation apart. Scarred by her past but determined to write her own future, Amina and the Rangers set out on a perilous journey, braving ravenous ghosts, vengeful demons, and the schemes of restless gods, all to win the would-be prince a throne.

But some things are better left forgotten. An ancient evil slumbers on the road to the fallen house, and as Amina draws closer to fulfilling the hopes of her people, she may discover that the greatest threat is not what awaits in the ruined city, but the dark power awakening within her.