Self-published in 2026 by Edith Birde (the pseudonym for a sister duo), Because I Killed Him offers a blend of dystopian science fiction and romance. As the first installment in a planned nine-book series called The Nine Gentlemen, the novel follows Loredana Waldsten, a low-citizen in a society rigidly stratified by each group’s genetically engineered blood color. After Loredana kills a high-citizen in self-defense, the state strips her of her legal right to carry weapons, so she enrolls at the elite Grandmaster University to regain her social standing. However, her father’s political work makes her a target for reprisals, so she forges a dangerous alliance with Edmund Prew, a powerful high-citizen, finding his protection almost as threatening as the enemies it’s meant to neutralize. Her journey examines themes such as Surrendering Dignity for the Safe of Survival, Systemic Violence as a Political Tool, and Finding Connection in a Divided Society.

This guide refers to the 2026 self-published paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, racism, gender discrimination, addiction, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

In the Civilized World, a society in which different castes of people are genetically engineered with specific blood colors and defining physical traits, 18-year-old Loredana Waldsten is a “low-citizen” Green (engineered for physical strength, stamina, and stealth). Alongside the other low-citizen castes, Orange and Purple, she and her family must contend with the rule of the “high-citizen” Blues, whose genetically engineered advantages far outweigh those of the other classes. While no caste lacks for money or luxury and all four are represented in government, only the Blue caste holds true power. The Blues brutally enforce their strict “behavior laws” of civility and obedience, and transgressors who lose too many “civil credits” are executed publicly via guillotine. 

A year ago, Loredana killed a Blue, a fellow fencer named Charles Blackwell, in self-defense when he assaulted her in a locker room after losing a fencing bout to her. The courts erased the incident to protect the honor of the Blackwell family, also punishing Loredana with a weapons restriction and derailing her promising fencing career. To lift the ban, she must enroll at Grandmaster University and live “virtuously” in the public eye for two years. As the novel opens, her father, Green Representative Bruce Waldsten, forces her to watch “Bloody Sunday,” a weekly televised execution of “Heretics” (traitors who oppose the Blues). His intention is to emphasize the dangers of public life. 

On the night of her departure for Grandmaster University, Bruce is called to an emergency vote on the Bliss Prohibition Act, a bill he champions that is designed to outlaw the popular drug Bliss. Loredana and her sisters, Vivian and Hillaire, warn Bruce that outlawing Bliss will make the whole family into targets. 

To reach Grandmaster University, Loredana first must travel to the train station on a private jet with two other Greens: Harrison Somerset (Vivian’s fiancé) and Charlotte Deering (her estranged former best friend). Harrison warns Loredana and Charlotte that for the sake of protection, many low-citizens at Grandmaster join an “entourage”—an exclusive inner circle of low-citizens who follow (and often wait upon) a specific Blue. Charlotte explains that she abandoned Loredana last year not because of Charlotte’s boyfriend, Jack Carroway, but because of Jack’s powerful best friend, Edmund Prew (a Blue from a very prominent family). Charlotte warns Loredana that Edmund’s twin sister, Rosamund Prew, is addicted to Bliss and lives for cruelty and treachery.

Just before the jet lands, the Bliss Prohibition Act passes, with Bruce casting the deciding vote. Loredana finds herself a prime target for angry Bliss users and must rely on a dismayed Harrison for protection. A “Copper” (police officer) who’s addicted to Bliss harasses Loredana, demanding her train-ticket information. When the group finally arrives at the train station, a Bliss-addicted Green student from Grandmaster, Vincent Lee, begins to challenge them but grudgingly backs off when someone in the crowd whistles a warning. 

On the train, Loredana and another student, Jane Bradford, are targeted by the same Copper whom Loredana encountered earlier. He brings two drug-detection dogs that behave aggressively around Loredana. Intuiting that the Copper intends to harm her, she asks Charlotte to use her connection to Jack to gain an invite to Edmund’s private salon on the Blue carriage. Once there, they meet Dickie Langley, a 15-year-old Orange intellectual prodigy; he and Jack are members of Edmund’s entourage. When an angry Edmund eventually appears, the women realize that Jack didn’t ask permission to bring them here. Edmund challenges Charlotte to a drink-based duel to settle her past (unnamed) transgression, but Charlotte wins on a technicality when the duel is interrupted by a lightning strike on the energy shield (the protective dome surrounding the entire Civilized World). (Much later, the narrative will reveal that Charlotte’s transgression was to attempt to cheat on Jack with Edmund one year ago, thereby alienating both men.)

By the terms of the deal, Charlotte and Loredana can each ask Edmund a favor. Loredana asks that Edmund save Jane’s life, as she’s still stuck with the Copper in the Green car. He reveals that he has already sent Dickie’s “Pinkie” (a humanoid robotic servant) to retrieve Jane. Later, they discover that Jane was mauled to death by the Copper’s dogs before the Pinkie could get to her. However, Dickie’s Pinkie recorded the murder, and the recovered footage leads to the Copper’s execution a few days later.

Loredana struggles to navigate the widespread hostility of other students in the wake of the Bliss ban and dreads the mandatory Stag Leap Gala, which will be held at the Speakeasy, a rare space where the rules of civilized behavior don’t apply. At the gala, Edmund’s hostile fiancée, Irene Hussey, attempts to murder Loredana while her fellow Blues torture a range of other students whose parents supported the Bliss ban. At least one student is killed. Loredana is saved by an ethical Copper named Sergeant Arthur Croft and by her own prototype energy shield, which Bruce obtained from the prominent tech mogul Winston Glass. She evades Irene and gains access to Edmund’s private party, where she arranges to join his entourage. Elsewhere, rogue Blues attempt to assassinate President Theodore Reeve but are unsuccessful because Bruce saves his life. Collectively, the two separate incidents end in the arrest of Irene and 27 other high-citizens. 

Because Loredana is a key witness against Irene, whom Edmund despises and doesn’t want to marry, Loredana’s safety became paramount to him. As Loredana becomes a regular member of his entourage, their uneasy relationship gives way to respect, and their mutual attraction slowly grows. Loredana learns that Edmund’s engagement to Irene was the price of reacquiring his grandfather Ernest’s flight jacket, which Irene owns. Edmund wants to examine the jacket to prove that Ernest didn’t die a coward in the battle that claimed his life. Ernest was once one of the legendary Vanguard pilots who protected the Civilized World from the invading “Rangers.” 

On one occasion, Loredana inadvertently witnesses Edmund’s mother, Headmistress Phillipa Prew, physically abusing him, but she says nothing. Later, she tracks down his grandfather’s Vanguard badge and gives it to Edmund for his birthday, but Rosamund promptly steals credit for finding it. In private, Edmund tells Loredana that he knows the gift came from her. Their bond deepens, and they begin finding excuses to see each other alone even though people who have romantic relationships with members of different blood groups risk execution. When Loredana finally admits to her father that she’s in Edmund’s entourage, he angrily reveals that Charles Blackwell (the man who assaulted her) was Edmund’s cousin. Aghast, she dreads the prospect of telling Edmund the truth and puts off this reckoning repeatedly. 

She resolves to tell him the truth during a yacht party, but her efforts are thwarted by the uninvited Irene and the vindictive Rosamund. When Rosamund accuses Loredana of sleeping with Edmund, an enraged Irene pitches Loredana off the boat and into the piranha-infested waters, along with the hapless Dickie, who can’t swim. Edmund and Jack rescue them, but not before Loredana’s legs are viciously mauled. She spends a week in the high-quality Blue hospital, with Edmund holding vigil at her bedside, and then returns to Grandmaster just in time to sit for her exams.

Edmund closets Loredana in the elevators and professes his love for her, but Loredana can’t reciprocate because she fears that he will reject her for killing Charles. Hurt and angry, he leaves before she can tell him the truth. Later that day, Rosamund plays an edited video of Charles’s attack, revealing the truth to Loredana’s entire Cloning Theory class—including Edmund. The edited video makes it appear like Loredana was the unprovoked aggressor. Edmund leaves without a word. Loredana’s professor doesn’t let her take the exam, giving her an incomplete mark for the course. To complete her Cloning Theory requirement, she seeks tutoring from a professor, and the enigmatic Professor Jerome Glass agrees to help her.

Later, Edmund seeks a meeting with Loredana at the tram station and reveals that he hated Charles and still loves Loredana. He asks her to take Bliss, knowing that it would trigger a political scandal for her father, ruining her reputation just as the edited video ruined his. She refuses and later withdraws from his entourage. 

Rosamund’s attacks escalate. Upon finding Loredana in Jerome’s office, she physically threatens Charlotte and humiliates Loredana. Someone then initiates a cyber-attack that illegally drains Loredana’s civil credits to near-execution levels. Loredana is rescued by Jerome, who’s secretly a Brasscoat (a government agent hunting Heretics). He drafts Loredana into a classified mission to infiltrate a secret Heretic network on campus. He gives her a covert status that exempts her from the usual behavior laws, restores her civil credits, and lifts her weapons restriction.

At the annual “Mensur” (a fencing duel), the Green Fraternity squares off against the Blue. Edmund is the Blue champion, but when Jack, the Green champion, gets drunk and is disqualified, William Lee (Vincent’s hot-headed younger brother) is chosen as Jack’s replacement. During the duel, William insults the watching Blues, and the nonlethal competition suddenly becomes a death duel. Vincent takes William’s place to protect him but is killed by Edmund. Enraged, the Greens, led by Harrison, charge the Blues, but the fight is cut short by a massive Ranger attack that breaches the energy shield. 

In the aftermath, Harrison is arrested for leading the charge against the Blues. Charlotte and Loredana race to locate him and learn that he will be subjected to a harsh punishment. Charlotte abruptly leaves, intent on challenging Rosamund to a death duel. Loredana intervenes, acting as Charlotte’s champion and disarming Rosamund just as Edmund arrives. He challenges Loredana but refuses to fight her. William, consumed by grief over Vincent’s death, attacks Edmund. Loredana protects Edmund with her energy shield, and the Blues kill William in retaliation. 

Later, Edmund tells Loredana that he only offered her Bliss because he knew that she would refuse; he hoped to make her angry enough to back away so that she would be protected from the pain of their impossible relationship. Edmund explains that the Ranger attack and the fear of losing her have made him realize that he can’t let her go. They reconcile, but Loredana explains that she must not associate with him next year because of her classified government assignment, which requires her to distance herself from all Blues.

The academic year ends with the Ovation Ceremony. Bruce is the guest speaker and plans to announce his run for Governor of the Rainbow District (the only district where all castes are allowed to mingle). During the ceremony, President Reeve, under duress from the Blues, overturns the Bliss Prohibition Act. In the ensuing chaos, Loredana and her father are evacuated, but their hovercar is attacked by a sniper. The novel ends on a cliffhanger as Bruce is hit in the head and shoulder.