by S.B. West
First published 2026
Morfran the Beheader wants out. The Dark Lord of Ruthven has grown weary of commanding minions and living with Queen Ravana, whose cruelty now surpasses even his tolerance. He flees to the hills, hoping to spend his remaining years tending goats in peaceful anonymity. His former soldiers pursue him with execution orders, forcing Morfran to hide in a remote forest village. The villagers don't recognize their former tyrant, but they do need a leader for their planned uprising against his rule. After Morfran reluctantly defends the settlement from attack, the rebels elect him to spearhead their revolution. Now he fights alongside people plotting his own downfall, including a determined assassin who has hunted him for ten years. Morfran plans to abandon his unwitting allies at the first opportunity, but their genuine kindness begins to change him. When Ravana dispatches his most skilled warriors to crush the rebellion, Morfran faces an impossible choice. His new friends would kill him instantly if they discovered his true identity, yet abandoning them means surrendering to the very evil he fled.
Genres: fiction, adventure, fantasy, dark-fantasy, epic-fantasy
Vibes: character-driven, dramatic, morally-complex, redemptive, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, found-family, redemption-arc, secret-identity
Setting: Ruthven, forest village
368 pages · Hardcover · Ace
Content warnings: death, violence