Spark of Defiance

They hang boys like me for what I can do.

Rowan Thatcher was supposed to manifest a quiet gift at his Revelation. What he gets instead is the one gift the Architect has spent a century eradicating: the ability to bond with heroes from books.

Before the witnesses finish speaking, Rowan is running east. The ghost at his shoulder is Robin Hood — real, hungry, and far more dangerous than the stories promised. In the hidden valley of the Thornwood Hollows, the resistance knows what he is. They've been waiting.

But every Inkborn who ever lived has been offered the same bargain: reach for Cú Chulainn — the berserker, the slaughter-god — and win the war in a single night. Rowan's father reached. Rowan's father is dead.

The first rule of patience: it costs someone you love.