A cold-hearted assassin. A boy with a price on his head. Rhisia Sen is one of the Empire’s highest paid assassins. Living a life of luxury, she chooses her contracts carefully, working to amass enough wealth so she can leave her bloody trade. She is offered a new contract on the outskirts of civilization, and almost refuses—until she sees the purse. It could be the last job she ever has to take. But when she reaches the destination, she discovers her mark is a child. The contract, and her reputation, demand she kill the boy—if she can banish his innocent face from her mind. But another assassin has been sent to kill her, and a notorious bounty hunter is on her trail. She doesn’t know why the boy is a target, or why her former employer wants her dead. Saving the child could be her only chance at survival. 

Veterans of a past war, Daro and Cecily left the politics and turmoil of their kingdom behind, making a home for themselves where they can live in peace. An unexpected attack fractures their quiet existence and although Cecily narrowly escapes with her life, Daro is taken captive. He awakens to a world where his captors exact complete control. Forced to wear a mask and given a number instead of a name, he endures crushing psychological torture, conditioning him to be an experimental subject in a madman’s bid to bend the laws of Wielding magic. As Cecily turns to old friends and attempts to mend broken alliances in her desperate search for her husband, Daro struggles to hold onto the shattered pieces of his mind. No sacrifice is too great to bring Daro back, but as the days tick by, he may succumb to his captors, becoming another living weapon in a growing army of abominations.

Rescued, but not yet saved. Although liberated from captivity by his wife and friends, Daro’s ordeal left him tortured, drowning in power he can’t control with voices haunting his mind. Cecily, weary and losing hope, watches with growing dread as her husband’s condition deteriorates. People from the land of Daro’s birth arrive with a possible solution. But to repair the pieces of his shattered psyche, Daro must leave his wife and travel to a home he scarcely remembers, where many believe he is too dangerous and the only answer is for him to die. News of the other captives reaches Cecily, and with an unlikely ally in Pathius, she sets out to prove they can be saved. But Pathius was once the prince and his very presence jeopardizes the peace she and Daro fought for. As tensions mount, Cecily may not be able to stem the tide of violence that threatens to overtake her kingdom, and war may be inevitable if Daro does not return.

Home after their long absence, Daro and Cecily want nothing more than to pick up the pieces of their life and return to normalcy. But outside events intrude on their peace and the memories of what they lived through aren’t so easy to leave behind. Pathius languishes, an unchained prisoner in a foreign land, doubtful of his place in the world.  In Imara, he is offered a chance for a new life, if he can release the ghosts of his past and accept the man he has become. As an invading army threatens their homeland, Daro, Cecily, and Pathius are drawn back into the political turmoil of Halthas. An assassin wreaks havoc in the city, a dangerous artifact is stolen, a force bent on conquest marches toward their border, and they all must put aside their desire for peace to face enemies for which their kingdom is not prepared.