Prologue

They say death runs in the blood.
In Thorne's family, it runs in the bone.

Before she could walk, she was taught how to disappear.
Before she could speak, she knew how to kill.

Her grandmother's hands were scarred with a hundred names, each one taken with precision. Her mother's blade never rusted-because it was always used. In whispered circles, the Thorne name was spoken like a warning. Like a curse.

They didn't work for coin.
They didn't serve kings.
They answered only to the Oath-an ancient pact sealed generations ago in silence and blood.

And now, it was Avery's turn.

The rules were simple.
No emotion.
No witnesses.
No failure.

But Avery was never simple.
She asked questions her mother wouldn't answer.
She saw things her grandmother refused to explain.
And deep inside her, something restless stirred-something neither blade nor blood could silence.

She was meant to follow the path.
To obey.
To kill.

But sometimes the sharpest weapons are the ones that turn on the hand that forged them.

And in the shadows of her family's legacy... Avery Thorne is beginning to wonder if she was born to be their heir-or their end.