Being a prince is never easy, especially when murder is the only way to become king. Following the death of his beloved wife, Isadora, King Lynceus had no plans to remarry and no heirs to the throne. His solution: one baby was to be adopted from each province to join the royal family. These children were randomly selected from orphanages across the empire, and at age 12, they would begin to kill one another. Every year at the Selection Ceremony, King Lynceus ranks his children in front of thousands of spectators. His ranking is infamously unpredictable and always subjective. One day later, the two children at the bottom of the ranking must fight to the death in a public arena for the chance to live another year. The children are 16 years old now, and seven remain. Lukas, the Emerald Prince, knows his time is running out. The ranks are thinning, and he's not among the king's favorites. With war brewing within his hometown in Emerald province, will the King choose to punish him to make a statement, or will he keep Lukas alive to keep the peace? Lukas isn't an innocent 12-year-old anymore. As he grows older, he begins to see the cracks in the foundation of the Lyncean Empire that he never noticed before. Why are the royal children never let outside of the castle alone, and why must they be supervised at all times by a personal guard? If the king really calls these teenagers his children, why are they forced to kill one another each year? As Lukas falls deeper and deeper into a romance with another man, a love affair punishable by death, the line between morality and the law begins to blur, and Lukas begins to question everything.
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