Dario Shiv has spent his life being shaped-by his father's brutal training, by the dream of becoming a knight, and by the vow he made the day his little brother was born: to protect him from everything. But when Dario finally steps into a world beyond Windbreak, he discovers that the greatest dangers aren't beasts lurking in the woods-they're secrets buried in his own family. A chance encounter with Nami, a sharp-minded Lethos girl, awakens questions Dario was raised never to ask. Why does his father fear her people so fiercely? Why is the Kingsguard the only future Dario is allowed to have? And what really happened in Windbreak before he was old enough to remember? When a violent attack in the forest shatters everything he thought he knew, Dario is forced to confront the truth: the monsters he's been trained to fight may not be the ones with claws.

In the frozen kingdom of Vessorov, Prince Nikolai has always lived in the shadow of his older brother, Petre-the heir, the protector, the one everyone depends on. While Nikolai wanders distant kingdoms in search of freedom, Petre shoulders the growing weight of duty at home. But when an urgent summons drags Nikolai back across the sea, he returns to a palace changed. Doors stay closed, voices fall silent when he approaches, and his parents avoid his eyes. Something is wrong in Vessorov-terribly wrong-and no one will tell him why. As pressure mounts for Nikolai to step into a role he never prepared for, he must uncover what the kingdom is hiding... and why everyone seems to think his arrival came too late.