A 2,000-year curse. One woman's ancient bloodline. The first choice he's ever been free to make. When a Roman centurion is cursed by a dying Pictish shaman north of Hadrian's Wall in AD 122, Gaius Valerius Constans doesn't just lose his humanity—he becomes an immortal weapon, bound to serve the will of emperors for two millennia. Now living quietly as a professor in modern Edinburgh, his endless servitude takes a brutal turn when the shadowy Quaestores activate their oldest protocol: terminate the bloodline of the shaman who cursed him. The target is Dr. Fiona Mackay, a brilliant geneticist whose research has just proven her family's unbroken descent from the ancient Picts. Sent to kill her, Adrian instead finds himself pounding on her door at midnight, warning her of a danger she can't possibly believe in. Forced to flee through the Scottish wilderness with the woman who holds the key to his freedom, Adrian must face an impossible truth: after 2,000 years of obedience, he has finally found something worth fighting for. But the Quaestores have waited centuries for this moment. They will burn the world to keep their weapon on its leash.