Moments later,

Author

The training grounds of Blackwood Villa had been rebuilt from a muddy pit into something that would have made a military academy weep with envy. Reinforced granite formed a perfect circle two hundred meters across, etched with silver runes that dampened excessive magical discharge. Target dummies lined the northern wall, each one enchanted to simulate the durability of various supernatural creatures. The southern wall held racks of weapons—standard issue, experimental, and several that had no business existing outside a classified government armory.

It was into this arena that Elias and Ezra Blackwood strode with the swagger of young men who had never been told no by anyone...