Book One
Children of the Wilds
In the Wildwoods, on the eastern reaches of the Frí Empire, there roams a people proud and fierce, unbound and unforgiving—and full of festering resentment. Kotae and Nai, the son and daughter of the feared Jom Maol, must navigate this world of cruel superstition and bloody competition as tensions brew between the Wild Clans and the Frí Empire in the wake of a massacre. With whispers of ill-omens and prowling shadows in the Wildwoods, Jom Maol is quick to blame the Empire. He wishes for nothing but war and vengeance upon those who stole their ancestral lands, and his children must walk the path he chooses for them.
For beloved Kotae, it is a path of ruthlessness. He is the eldest and the unblemished and thus the only one who can compete for the title of jom and uphold his father’s legacy of fear and intimidation. Only with that title and the fear behind it can he continue to keep his sister safe. But how much blood is he willing to spill; how many lives is Kotae willing to trade in order to preserve hers?
For cursed Nai, it is a path of loneliness. Born with a demonmark upon her face, she is an outcast among her own people, alive only because her father the jom wills it so. For her father has a purpose for her. She is to be his eyes and ears, a secret-gatherer who slips among the shadows. But what kind of life is that for a girl like Nai who dreams of glory and recognition?
Children of the Wilds is a gritty tale of two siblings, their love and hate, and the demons—both real and hidden—that prey upon such passions. It is the first book in the dark fantasy series Of Gods and Monsters.
“We’ve been blind, Kotae,” Nai went on. “Stupid. But you see it now right? They were afraid of him. We’re all afraid of him. The only reason either of us lives, this day and all the others before, is that they fear him. If Jom Maol were dead, they’d kill me for my face and you for his title.”
Children of the Wilds, V.M. Lavigne
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V.M. Lavigne 