Sometimes sacrificing everything is not enough.
In VasAura, magic is not a blessing. It is a theft.
Fen has spent his life dreaming of becoming a hero. But when his uncle vanishes at sea and a bloodied stranger washes ashore in his missing boat, Fen is thrust into a world far darker than the stories he grew up believing.
The stranger is Asito, a runaway prince who doesn't know his father is dead, or that the kingdom he denies is already sliding towards war.
With Mina, an assassin with nowhere left to belong, Fen sets out to return the reluctant king to his throne. But the journey exposes the terrible truth behind VasAura's legendary magic: it is drained from those forced to suffer for it.
Fen refuses to accept the price. And the kingdom makes him pay.
Marked forever, he becomes bound to the Atherlast: a spectral guardian born from grief, rage and a hunger for vengeance.
But the Atherlast is not a power Fen can simply wield, and the more Fen relies on it to protect the people he loves, the more of himself he risks losing.
As war closes in, Fen must decide what kind of hero he is willing to become and whether saving a broken kingdom means protecting it, or destroying everything it was built upon.
