Glenn Dorff grew up hungry in a city where magic was not real and survival meant doing whatever it took. After a failed theft lands him in a cell, a deed arrives with a dead-man protocol and a name he has never heard: Darvin Dorff.
Within hours, Glenn's mother is murdered by a wand in their own home. The killer leaves one truth behind-Gregory Divine is Glenn's father, and he wants what Darvin hid on Inventor's Island.
Glenn flees to the island and steps into a mansion that acts like a living guard. The house lowers its defenses for him, then starts testing him with traps, truth-doors, and inventions built for war. Each hidden device grants a new power. Each lesson pulls Glenn closer to the reason Darvin died.
Gregory is coming. And the invention he wants most can poison the air itself, turning the world into a grave for every non-magic human.
To stop him, Glenn must survive the mansion's training, face the blood he never asked for, and decide what kind of heir he will become.