The Sundered Prince

In an empire where magic is strictly controlled by the bloodlines of seven ruling houses, a borderland farmer accidentally awakens an ancient, forbidden power of absolute frost. He is not a chosen savior—he is a walking anomaly that the empire will burn to the ground to erase. Kael knows only the grueling dirt of the borderlands and the endless cycle of the harvest. For sixteen years, he has ignored the unnatural, biting chill in his veins and the heavy silver ring he has worn since he was abandoned as an infant. In a fractured empire ruled by Seven Great Houses and their elemental magic, Kael is a nobody—and that is exactly what keeps him alive. But the Empire’s cold war is bleeding into the outer provinces. When a moment of violent trauma forces Kael to unleash a terrifying, impossible surge of frost, his quiet life is permanently shattered. He is suddenly holding a power that completely defies the established laws of magic, marking him as a system failure that the Imperial hounds are eager to hunt down and eradicate. Forced to flee his home alongside a dangerous, pragmatic fugitive who harbors bloody secrets of his own, Kael must navigate a world of political tension, ancient monsters, and ruthless sanctioned mages. He must learn to control the sentient, freezing magic threatening to consume his mind, or risk being destroyed by it. Kael is no destined hero. He is a flaw in a thousand-year-old machine. But as the ice within him fully awakens, he might just be the flaw that breaks the Empire.