The Traitor Within

Sworn to battle the monsters of the Spirit World,

Aari Blackgard's burden has gotten a great deal heavier.

For the Ancient One stirs.

While other Realms have grown complacent, forgetting how close the consuming darkness once came to devouring the Realms, the Sentinels of Skaffa Falls have held their vigil at the Valley of the Dead-the barrier between their world and the Spirit World that serves as the Ancient One's prison.

Aari Blackgard fights with only his blade and magic to turn back the horrors that bleed through from the Spirit World. But now more and more of the Ancient One's nightmarish servants are clawing their way through the Rip in the Veil, and all the battles he's fought pale before the greater peril that threatens.

The signs are unmistakable. The protected paths crumble. Monsters take flesh in the waking world. Sentinels fall and the evil spreads.

Unless Aari can stop it.

Yet can he meet the requirements of the pledge that he has made to the Sentinels while facing treachery closer to home?

Does he have the courage to destroy the insidious threat knowing that at the same time he risks destroying his family as well?

For though he bears the Blackgard name, Aari walks the razor's edge between legitimacy and exile.

Some oaths are written in blood. Others are forged in sacrifice. For Aari Blackgard, both define his existence.

In a world where trust is as rare as hope and magic cuts both ways, Aari Blackgard will discover that sometimes the greatest enemy isn't the monster at the gate-it's the one wearing a familiar face.

From bestselling author Peter Wacht comes a tale of epic proportions, where honor and treachery dance on the edge of a blade and duty cuts deepest when it conflicts with blood.