The first victims were never human. So the last thing she expected to lose was her heart. Princess Arienne Aravelle has spent her life performing the version of herself Sylvaris needs: composed, capable, untouchable. She is very good at it. She has had to be. But the city is changing. The creatures Sylvaris was built alongside are retreating into silence. Cryptic letters are finding their way into Arienne's hands. Something is moving beneath the surface of everything she has spent years protecting, and every warning points to a danger no one wants to name. She does not have time for the new frontier sentinel reassigned to her guard. Ikor Vardon is from the Outer Ring, unbothered by palace protocol, and constitutionally incapable of pretending not to notice things. He notices everything. Especially her. The problem is not that he is a distraction. The problem is that he is the only person in the palace who looks at her and seems to see something she forgot was there. Arienne has spent a long time being careful. Ikor is making it very difficult to remember why.

On the day Etheria fell, Rowena Valmont lost everything: her home, her family, and the future she once believed in. For seven years, the noble-born exile has clung to hope in the shadows, waiting for her father's return. But when her last sanctuary is destroyed, Rowena discovers a legendary weapon born of magic that was long thought to be extinct. Suddenly, she is thrust into a deadly world where the fate of kingdoms hangs in the balance as an ancient, malevolent force stirs once more. Pursued by enemies and drawn to a mysterious gladiator whose secrets could cost them both everything, Rowena must decide: Will she risk everything to reclaim her homeland, or will she rise to become the hero Solmira never knew it needed?