Mark Bishop

Stephen has always known the law was never made for people like him. Orphaned young, raised on cruelty, and betrayed by those meant to protect him, he has no faith in justice-only in vengeance. When he meets Jane, a gentle light in his otherwise broken world, he dares to believe in love again. But when Jane is brutally attacked and left fighting for her life, Stephen's last illusions shatter. In the depths of a hidden library, he finds the key to a darker path: an ancient crimson book capable of summoning beings bound to his will.
From its pages rise Areen, Sarabil, Lilithia, and Alice-the strange wolf-child who calls him father. Together they form the Legion of Shadows, a sect sworn to carry out Stephen's brand of justice. As his power grows, so does the cost. Revenge leads him into a war with old enemies and awakens truths buried in blood-about his parents' murder, the legacy of Max Manuel, and Jane's own family. In a world where love is a weakness and betrayal is law, Stephen must choose: cling to the humanity Jane gave him, or embrace the shadows that hunger to claim his soul.
But when the blade finally turns in the hands of the one he loves most, Stephen learns the cruelest truth of all-sometimes the greatest price of vengeance is love itself.