Arcade of Rose
Once the prince of Som, Arcade lost everything when the powerful mage Subahu destroyed his kingdom and killed his mother.
Consumed by vengeance, Arcade made a dangerous bargain with celestial beings, surrendering a part of his humanity in exchange for extraordinary power. The bargain granted him an unnaturally long life and abilities far beyond those of an ordinary mage-but it came with a devastating price: Arcade could no longer experience love, joy, grief, or any emotion at its fullest intensity.
One hundred and fifty years later, he still walks the world with the appearance of a man in his early thirties, hunting for the one weakness that might finally allow him to kill Subahu. Kingdoms have risen and fallen around him, friendships have faded, and countless attempts at revenge have failed, yet Arcade has never abandoned the purpose that has kept him alive for more than a century.
Then he meets Rose.
Rose remembers almost nothing about who she truly is. Her origins cannot be traced, her presence carries an aura even experienced mages cannot identify, and there is something about her that does not seem to belong to the world Arcade understands.
To Arcade, she may be exactly what he has spent one hundred and fifty years searching for-a mystery powerful enough to become the missing piece in his plan against Subahu.
So he keeps her close.
At first, for a reason he understands perfectly well.
But the longer Rose remains beside him, the more something begins to change.
Arcade finds himself protecting her when there is no strategic reason to do so. He worries when she disappears, pulls her back whenever he tries to let her go, and begins experiencing emotions he believed his bargain had taken from him forever.
And that creates a far more dangerous question than anything Subahu has ever posed