The victory party’s champagne bubbles turned to ash in Reed’s mouth. The grainy photograph on his phone felt like a live wire in his hand, burning with a truth he wasn't sure he wanted to know. He stared at the face of the young, ambitious Harold, his hand clasped not with a sorceress, but with a monster of a different kind—General Kader, the "Butcher of Balmor," a man whose regime had been responsible for atrocities that still haunted history texts.

'There is another.' ...