Nine gods ruled the world, until the ultimate betrayal resulted in their destruction. Now, the world is dying and only by restoring the Lost Gods can it be saved.
Nine hundred years the Basilisk, God of Death and Destruction, was murdered by persons unknown, and in the wake of his death the kingdom of Piedre was torn apart, split into feuding cults that wage war to this day. The Brotherhood of the Black Rose seeks to ensure the Basilisk never returns, and the Order of the White Rose is determined to restore him.
Key to both missions is the Basilisk himself, reincarnated every few generations as a mortal whose eyes can turn all who see them to stone in a single glance. The latest incarnation is Prince Culebra, his eyes bound since birth to save everyone from him.
He lives a life of despair, everyone around him scared of him, one lover dead, the other having left, consumed by grief. When he is not subject to his brother's callous disregard, he is fighting off assassins and kidnappers, always aware that his every predecessor all died one of two ways: murder or suicide.