Son of Anger (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780999791035)

Son of Anger follows Albert "Al" Ornfel, a young man who should have been content with the life laid out for him-land to work, a marriage arranged, and a future measured in seasons and harvests. But on the verge of his coming of age, Al is seized by a dark prophecy so vivid it leaves him shaken long after waking: a skeletal figure called Cygnus stepping onto distant shores, as if an ancient evil is rising and an old nightmare has found its way back into the world. When Al confides in the wrong person, betrayal comes swiftly. His name is ruined, his home is lost, and he is driven into exile with nothing but a handful of coins and the terrible certainty that his dream was not imagination-it was warning.

Hunted by the Odio Magisterium and their ruthless agents, Al becomes an exiled hero on the run, fleeing north into harsher country where old borders mean little and loyalty is never free. What begins as a desperate fight to survive becomes an epic quest for answers: who-or what-is Cygnus, why is Al being hunted, and why do the rumors spreading through the villages sound like echoes of his vision? Along the road he is forced to trust strangers, forming unlikely bonds with a streetwise orphan and a strangely sentient wolf pup whose intelligence feels almost unsettling. Each step deeper into the wild places draws Al farther from the boy he was, and closer to the war he never asked for.

In the frozen north, nomadic clans guard one of the last great magical seals-an ancient barrier meant to hold back something the world has tried to forget. But the clans are fracturing under pressure, and the first signs of siege are already gathering: ogres and corrupted beasts, disciplined raiders, and an immortal warlord moving pieces from the shadows. To survive, Al is taken in and trained in the Warrior's Way, a lost martial discipline that teaches control of breath, mind, and inner power. The training hardens him, sharpens him-and awakens something in his blood that should not exist. As Al's abilities grow, so do the whispers of a darker legacy: that he may be the last of the Alfarbani, a feared bloodline forged for war-making him a possible chosen one, or a threat to be destroyed.

When the north finally ignites, Al is forced into a role he never wanted-war leader, symbol of prophecy, and the final shield standing between a resurgent darkness and everything the southern kingdoms take for granted. Yet prophecy cuts both ways. The closer Al comes to the truth of what he is, the more he must fear what he was made to become-because the power that could save his world might also turn him into the enemy's perfect weapon.

Son of Anger is the first installment in an epic fantasy saga of exile and redemption, forged friendships and brutal betrayals, ancient magic and rising war-a hero's journey with the grit of sword and sorcery and the stakes of a world on the brink.