The fatal games and twisted betrayal
This book is the first book in the series
Induction
The rain, a relentless, icy curtain, mirrored the chill that had settled deep in Eric Menalcas It was his twenty-first birthday, a milestone usually marked by celebration, but in the underbelly of Seattle, where shadows held more substance than sunlight, birthdays were often harbingers of something far more sinister. Tonight, the chilling tradition of the Fatal Games was his grim present.
The city, a sprawling concrete beast, was a labyrinth Eric knew intimately. He'd grown up navigating its dark alleys and grimy corners, the echoes of sirens and hushed whispers the soundtrack to his childhood. He was a child of the criminal world, a product of the Menalcas family, whose roots were as tangled and poisonous as the city's decaying infrastructure. His father, Augustus Menalcas, a man whose eyes held the cold gleam of steel, had made it clear from the moment Eric could understand words that the Games were not a choice, but a destiny.
Each year, the city's most ruthless families participated. It was a grotesque spectacle, a twisted ritual masked as a means to maintain the family's dominance, a bloody dance of survival and betrayal. This year, it was Eric's turn to play the part of the hunted.
He stood in the dimly lit warehouse, the air thick with the smell of mildew and fear. A scattering of metal drums served as makeshift barricades, their cold surfaces reflecting the single, flickering bulb hanging precariously from the ceiling. The atmosphere was heavy with dread, the silence punctuated only by the rhythmic dripping of water from the leaky roof. The other participants, figures cloaked in shadows, were silhouettes of their own dread. They were his neighbors, acquaintances, some were even so-called friends. Now, their eyes held a calculating hunger, their hands itching for the cruel opportunity the game promised.
