For a Godless like Azreal the Wretched, peace might be a more profitable time, but it’s no less bloody… A decade into the armistice with Inath, the North, once divided against invasion, finds itself a divided kingdom. Azreal - an infamous mage of the Northern military - operates in his native land as a contract killer, employed to hunt traitors by a king who is squabbling against his would-be usurpers. But when the completion of his latest bounty unveils a foreign plot to dethrone the North altogether, Azreal is the only one who can cross the border and answer in kind. Or he would have been, until betrayal at the final moment resulted in his killing of the wrong man and capture by those he’s spent half his life fighting. Now, imprisoned and awaiting his execution for the murder of an Inathian crown Prince, Azreal finds himself across the interrogation table from Anamira Lestrade. A career criminal investigator, Ana is tasked with extracting the truth behind the assasination or dying in failure - linking the two through one last story that could stave off their gruesome deaths. Possessed of few friends, countless enemies, magic blades that feast on his emotions, and the haunting rumors of how he won his name, Azreal’s narrative puts him against traitorous conspiracy, brutal magical feuds, and broken promises of love. And if there’s any hope of making it out alive at it’s end, he’ll need to conquer the price it cost him to pain the tale red: Fear.