Echoborne Book 1: Fractured Light

Thirteen-year-old Jaice doesn't feel like a legend; he feels like a boy who has been handed a role he never auditioned for. While the world looks at him and sees a savior, Jaice only sees a child forced to grow up too fast, wielding a terrifying power over shadows that he never asked to possess. His journey toward "destiny" is less of a heroic march and more of a desperate scramble for survival. In a harrowing confrontation with a shadowy entity that mirrors his own dark gifts, the illusions of his life begin to shatter. Jaice finds himself trapped in a web of truth and deception, where he is forced to play the hero just to survive the night. The true hardship, however, isn't the weight of his power—it’s the weight of his heart. The path ahead is blocked not by monsters, but by the people who were supposed to love him. The ultimate betrayal comes from the one person he trusted most: his best friend, Justin. Alongside the family he once cherished, Justin reveals a devastating truth, to them, Jaice is not a son or a friend, but an enemy. The people he would have died for have become the enemies who seek to destroy him. Now, Jaice stands at a soul-crushing crossroads. To save himself, he must face and defeat the only family he has ever known. He is forced into an impossible decision: remain the "hero" the world wants by sacrificing his own life to his loved ones, or become the man he needs to be by destroying the people who betrayed him.