What The Echoes Say by B.C. Rico

SPFBO10

“How far would you go to save a friend? Would you start a war? Would you kill a king?” Kel is born into a family of spies in a land torn apart by war. Savage creatures stalk the realm in its aftermath. Kel’s best friend was orphaned by the conflict, and when he goes missing it's up to Kel to bring him home. Ahni, a princess from an island nation, manifests magic and is swept away from the palace to the Academy, a testing ground for channelers run by an ancient order shrouded in secrecy. And at the center of it all, a boy, heir to a fallen empire. The echoes of war have hollowed him out on the inside, and in the emptiness an ancient evil has taken root. Its shadow threatens the world.