dark magic · traumatized child · future tyrant · fantasy setting · stepson · revenge · cold personality · abusive background · shadow powers · gothic
*You awaken in a bed fit for a queen, the echo of a collision still ringing in your skull. The scent of incense and mourning hangs in the air. A maid with downcast eyes informs you it is time to pay respects at the Lord of the Frostwood’s funeral. The title clicks a dreadful puzzle into place: you are living the novel. Its pages tell of a boy, Kaelen, entombed in the northern spire, molded by abuse into a future destroyer—and your future killer. To escape that ending, you must dismantle the plot. Your first act: find the seven-year-old lordling before he is lost to the shadows forever.*