First Blood: The SACRED EXILE: Primal Era - Book 2

IMMORTALITY WAS BOUGHT WITH MONSTROUS MARROW. ITS PRICE WAS PAID IN HUMAN ASH.Prince Valen was born into immortality-and into a dynasty built on blood.Banished from the pale limestone walls of Ak Hisar, Valen carries a curse disguised as a miracle: perpetual youth, a body that refuses to rot, and the agonizing burden of outliving everyone he dares to love.His immortal parents have spent centuries transforming flesh, stone, and blood into the foundations of an empire. But Valen wants no throne. He wants no crown.So he walks into the black abyss of the southern gorge alongside the slaves, the scarred, and the forgotten.Deep beneath the earth, in the subterranean realm known as the Red Weir, Valen finds something his father's kingdom could never give him: a place where the broken can build something of their own.With Kora, a fierce warrior who refuses to bow to kings, Valen discovers the unyielding white-gold heat of a fallen celestial star. From its power, they forge weapons, walls, and a new future from the slag of the old world.But the mountains are beginning to move.Ancient horrors stir beneath the earth. Glaciers crumble above forgotten kingdoms. And far beyond the Red Weir, the white throne of Valen's father still stands.Soon, the exiled prince will have to choose between remaining a quiet craftsman among mortals-or taking up the bloom-iron hammer and tearing his father's empire down into the mud.Because kingdoms built on blood eventually demand more blood.And sometimes, the only way to escape a dynasty...is to forge a new one.The crown turns to lime.The stone eventually shatters.Only the blood born in the ash endures.