"The First Kill" was published in the anthology Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues.

About this story, author Django Wexler says, "'The First Kill' is a bit of backstory for the universe of The Shadow Campaigns. It's always hard to give a proper spotlight to the villains in a novel where they don't get a POV, so I wanted to take this chance to explore that a little. The Shadow Throne implies a connection between Andreas, Duke Orlanko's brutally efficient go-to killer, and Sothe, the Gray Rose, his best agent turned bitter enemy. In this story, we get to see these two at an earlier point in their careers, and take a look at how that relationship got started."