Choking on the ashes of his enemy

In a land devastated by war, two kingdoms fight over complete control. Armitage Hux is already twenty-six, entirely unfit for combat and a disgrace to his father. Faced with the prospect of certain death as nothing but a mere soldier, he struggles to hold his own. Spiteful of fate, Hux dreams of ascending to the throne, unite the kingdoms beneath him and finally do what his ancestors never could: Eradicate magic once and for all.

Everything changes however, when he decides to save a strange raven from certain doom. Stranger still, the raven turns out to be a cursed prince.