Dirtaria
The tyrant Emperor Darius is dead. Maximilien sits on the throne with Juvelian by his side, and the Floyen estate has finally found peace. The war is over. Or so they thought. From the frozen, brutal borders returns a ghost everyone believed was executed decades ago: Prince Regulus, the original Crown Prince, framed by his own brother and banished to the shadows. He returns not to claim the throne from his nephew, but to slaughter the remaining corrupt nobility who dare threaten Latisha's son. He is just as ruthless as Darius ever was, operating on a single, cold rule: A king must never have a heart. But Duke Regis Floyen remembers a different man. He remembers the companion who abandoned him, broke his heart, and left him to face the imperial meat-grinder alone. As a devastating truth begins to unravel-of a secret sacrifice made by the late Empress Latisha to keep Regis alive-the stoic Duke is forced to confront the man who threw away his own soul just to ensure Regis survived.