Across the city of Valthran, someone is murdering people from all corners of society in ritualized and brutal fashion, with no pattern anyone can find. Kalian Boldren, once the kingdom's most feared inquisitor, now a disgraced mage with a frail mind and body, is arrested shortly after spending fifteen years in prison. The marshal gives him a choice to stay free and help hunt the killer known as the Red Knight, or return to a cell. For a man desperate to atone for his sins and fix his broken family, there's only one choice.
But when the trail leads to Kalian's son, his estranged daughter Aelia, the only Boldren who can't use magic, confronts him with a warning from her brother to stop investigating.
Instead, they form an unlikely alliance, navigating a web of cult rituals, dark sorcery, and buried family secrets. They must race to exonerate Kalian's son and stop the Red Knight before the murders ignite political unrest that could topple the queen and bring Valthran's rival kingdom crashing through its gates.
Ending the terror may require the very thing that once destroyed Kalian: forbidden magic. Can a man slipping into madness find redemption, or will saving his family cost him everything he has left, including his sanity?
