The Emperor of Magic

A contemporary epic fantasy combining murder mystery, political intrigue, hidden-world mythology, and Berto's transformation from an ordinary man into the first sovereign capable of uniting all four magical kingdoms.

"Power inherited makes a ruler. Power endured makes an emperor."

In the modern world, magic survives behind the Veil, an ancient network of enchantments that conceals magical beings, territories, and supernatural events from mortals. The four magical kingdoms overlap the mortal world geographically, but each exists on another plane of reality.

The oldest law shared by the kingdoms is the Edict of Secrecy:

No magical being may knowingly reveal magic, the magical kingdoms, or the existence of the Veil to a mortal.

Modern technology has made the secret increasingly difficult to protect. Magical officials now erase surveillance footage, alter digital records, suppress viral videos, and replace memories when supernatural incidents spill into mortal spaces.

When ritual murders strike all four kingdoms, centuries of distrust threaten to ignite a magical world war. The killer is Véthar'zael, ruler of the southern Shadow Land. Denied representation on the Consilium Magicum, he intends to destroy the existing order and replace it with one founded on fear.

His weapon is Berto, a 28-year-old African American man from Whiteville, North Carolina. Abducted and transformed through forbidden blood magic, Berto becomes the only living being to possess the powers of all four kingdoms.

But Véthar'zael makes one fatal mistake: he gives Berto enough power to resist him.