The opening story from 2009’s Tales of Heresy, Dan Abnett’s Blood Games was the first real exploration of the Adeptus Custodes in the Horus Heresy, and set the standard not just for Custodes stories but for Heresy short stories in general. It opens as a veiled cat and mouse story with a dangerous intruder breaching the security of the Imperial Palace, before widening in scope and showing the Custodes in action, enforcing their remit elsewhere on Terra with skill and nerve. Along the way it explores the people, sights and dynamics of regions right across the Throneworld, not to mention the Custodes themselves.
