KING ERUS ruled with grace—until his son Valerius spilled his blood for the crown. What followed was an age of iron: the Iron Tithe, chained youth, and a kingdom choking under cruelty. When a defiant boy named Corin speaks out, he is cast into the Blackwood, left to die. But survival finds him in the shadows. A hybrid vampire offers a terrible bargain: surrender his humanity, and gain the power to break a tyrant. Corin accepts. He returns as something more—and less—than a man. Through guerrilla strikes and blood-soaked rebellion, he shatters Valerius’s reign and claims the throne. But liberation has a monstrous face. When the kingdom learns their savior is a vampire, gratitude turns to terror. Alliances fracture. Foreign crowns march. Corin stands alone, hunted by the very people he freed. Yet he will not yield. “I will be the first king to wear the crown of the vampire,” he vows, “and my kingdom shall reign for eternity. For I will be the first… and the last king ever.” Spanning exile, transformation, rebellion, and war, this is a dark epic of power, sacrifice, and the terrible cost of forever. Some call him a savior. Some call him a monster. All will kneel—or bleed.