Sir Alexander Jaska is a knight in the service of High King Nazarian-a knight whose servants have a nasty habit of dying horribly in the line of duty. Forbidden from taking any more from the barracks or castle, Alex has to do the unthinkable: pay for his own.
Determined not to hire someone who'd then quit when they discovered his track record, Alex opts instead to purchase a slave. But is being led by fascination better than being led by your head, when your new slave makes no secret of his hatred for you?
And for the dark elf Milos, bought by exactly the kind of person he loathes and who laughs in the face of his threats, there's every chance he'll fail to outlive his new master: if the perils of his new life don't kill him, Alex's volatile temper just might. And it would be an easy way out of the life he hates-but it would mean admitting defeat...