An Absent Gale (Elementalist) (Volume 1)

A thousand-year war demands everything from its soldiers.
Alexi Grekov is about to learn what it demands of its monsters.

At Oblako Academy, the elite are trained to command the winds and lead the front lines of an endless conflict. Alexi, a scholarship student from the slums, just wants to survive long enough to graduate.

Then a forbidden artifact chooses him.

After a blood-bond goes violently wrong, Alexi is no longer just a student—he’s a pawn in a game he doesn’t understand. The prophecy has marked him. A vengeful professor wants him dead. His best friend is vanishing into the city’s criminal underbelly.

Worst of all, Alexi’s magic is changing becoming heavier. More brutal. Forbidden.

In a world where children are raised for battle and legends are weaponized for profit, Alexi must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice.

Because the prophecy doesn’t promise a hero.
It promises a Warden.

And the world has forgotten that some protectors are more dangerous than the war they were meant to end.