Story so far

Red Rising began in the mines beneath Mars, where Darrow, a lowRed Helldiver, believed his people were terraforming a dead world for humanity's future—until his wife Eo sang a forbidden song of freedom and was hanged for it, and Darrow, hanging himself in grief, was cut down by the rebel Sons of Ares. Their surgeon Mickey remade his body into that of a Gold, the ruling caste, and sent him to infiltrate the Institute, the brutal academy where Gold youths war for dominance. There Darrow rose to conquer, though the cost was heavy: he killed Julian au Bellona in the Passage and lost dear friends. Now, in the aftermath, Darrow walks the floating mountain of Olympus amid the swirling ships of Mars's great Golds, come to claim the year's finest graduates. Beside him stands Nero au Augustus, ArchGovernor of Mars, who has taken Darrow as his prize and vows to shield him from the vengeful house of Bellona—for their son Julian is dead by Darrow's hand, and Cassius, once Darrow's closest friend, now watches with burning eyes across the snow. Augustus warns that all bonds forged on the mountain are now dust, and that Darrow is not prepared for what comes. Darrow lets the old man believe he owns him, biding his secret purpose: to be welcomed into the house of the enemy so that he might one day burn it down, carrying Eo's dream across the ages. He does not forgive; he does not forget. Yet when Augustus's daughter, Mustang, takes his hand, Darrow feels the weight of all his lies settle over him—reminded that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, and that the one enemy his mission may not survive is his own heart.