Gladiator meets Dungeons and Dragons in this dark fantasy series—both a metaphor for the immigrant experience and a captivatingly romantic read, from National Readers Choice Finalist Cecy Robson.

In Old Erth, elves reign supreme, controlling all other races with an iron fist. But they are not all-powerful. Unable to propagate their race, they depend on using humans as livestock, mating them with elven women to further themselves.

As a human, Leith has spent his entire life fighting in the arena in the hopes of making it to the Black Guard – the elite rank of warriors who have won their freedom. He’s battled dragons and shifters and all kinds of monsters. There is only one battle left until he can finally be free from servitude.

But when he meets Alva, a rare human born from elf parents, he chooses her as his companion. Little does he know that Alva has secrets of her own. She has powers – dangerous, secret powers, that the elven nobility cannot find out about. The gladiator may be preferable to the marriage her parents have in mind for her, but Alva has never been taught how to be human.

Once Leith is free, the ruling family realise that he is too popular to keep alive. And Alva is perfectly placed to take him down. But the feelings that are growing between the pair could mean the freedom of the world – or the destruction of them all.

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Red Tower Books (October 22, 2024)
• ISBN-13: 978-1649374059