Sorrows of the Son

They told him monsters didn't exist.
Caspian Valerion knew better.

When Prince Cam Tauri turns twenty, the law of Navarre says he must remain protected-untouchable, untrained, and far from the Riders Quadrant. Caspian Valerion has never cared much for laws. Especially not the kind built to preserve lies.

Raised away from the Melgren name he was born into, Caspian grew up watching a sister he barely recognized become something the world feared. Seraphina Melgren-the perfect weapon, the general's masterpiece, the girl who never once looked back. He learned early what it meant to be left behind, and he decided just as early that he would never be lesser for it.

So when Caspian helps Cam escape his gilded twentieth birthday to enlist illegally, it isn't rebellion for rebellion's sake. It's a choice. One he's been making since he was ten.

Because Navarre is lying.

Venin exist. Wyvern stalk the skies beyond the wards. And Caspian has spent the last year uncovering the truth the kingdom buried alongside its dead. Enlisting isn't just defiance-it's proximity. To answers. To power. To the sister who chose the monster their father made over the brother she left behind.

At Basgiath War College, Caspian doesn't fight for glory or honor. He fights to be better than Seraphina Melgren. Better than the man who forged her. Better than a world that decides which children are weapons and which are disposable.

But secrets don't stay buried. And survival demands more than sharp blades, quicker wit, and sarcasm honed to a razor's edge-especially when the angriest girl he's ever met looks at him like he might be worth staying for.

As secrets unravel and truths surface, Caspian learns that nothing-
not Navarre, not monsters, not even family-
is quite what it seems.