When Alistair Melek gave his life to the sea, a various degree of things changed. For starters, his love for bloodshed was exemplified. Bolder. He was drawn to the clash of a sword, blood spiling below to floorboards, like a moth drawn to a flame. And this love was damned to spread through his crew as some treacherous disease, claiming any and all who joined. But he knew this was the price he'd pay. The price for the sea itself. So when his crew completes another standard loot and pillage from a merchant ship, he allows his men a bit of fun. He liked to give them an audience, rounding up those who didn't fall victim to the blade during battle, and forcing them to beg for their lives. To prove how much they really wanted to live. Alistair had ruled the sea for some years now. Killed thousands, maybe tens of thousands. Destroyed hundreds, maybe thousands of vessels. And yet, each feeble human was all the same. There was not one man he threatened that didn't beg for their lives with all they had in them when faced with the wrong end of the sword. Each feeble human was always the same. Or so he thought. And yet, he also thought that this would be one standard job. A treat for his men after a night of good work. But this particular survivor, the one with long white hair and dead looking eyes... He wasn't a merchant. He couldn't have been. More important, there was no hesitancy when Alistair asked the fairly built man whether he wanted to live, and the man replied with a simple no.

Fifteen years after King Leonardo's death, his surviving son, Fabian, still throws a festival each year in remembrance of his dead father, mother, and brother. Being the only one to survive, witnesses claimed his crowning as king had been as sombre as the funeral. James has lived on the streets since childhood with nothing but his relic sword, Eris, living a profitable life killing for money. But, at twenty-five, James received a request from a client who refused to be identified. It was a request that would threaten the life he had built-tear down everything he'd made. A request that, once he heard, he knew he wouldn't be allowed to live and refuse. A request to kill King Fabian. [Book 1 in the Red King series]