This book takes everything you think you know about chosen-one fantasies and burns it to the ground. Jenn Lyons doesn't just subvert expectations—she obliterates them. Kihrin grew up as a bastard orphan, dreaming the dreams orphans dream: lost princes, grand destinies, the whole fairy tale. Then he gets claimed as the long-lost son of a treasonous prince, and reality hits hard. This isn't a rescue. It's a trap. His new family doesn't want him—they want to use him. He's a pawn in their power plays, a piece on a board he doesn't understand. And everything the storybooks promised? Dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, true love, the hero's inevitable victory? All lies. Or at least, not the versions he was told. Here's the kicker: Kihrin isn't destined to save the empire. He might be destined to destroy it. Lyons builds a world where prophecy is a weapon, family is a curse, and the line between hero and villain depends entirely on where you're standing. The stakes are cosmic, the betrayals are personal, and Kihrin has to figure out who he is when everything he believed turns out to be fiction. Sharp, dark, and utterly uncompromising.