Two years ago, Soren Vane watched her dragon burn for her mistake. Now the disgraced rider hunts relics in Emberwild's gutters, one failed bond away from disappearing forever. When she steals a cursed map to the Obsidian Pyre - a lost hive of wild dragons - she sees only escape. Until Hayden Ashwood finds her. The Warlord of the Iron Fang wears his dead dragon's talons as a crown. He offers her a choice carved in blood: guide him through the monster-choked Shatterlands, or watch the last person she loves die screaming. Their truce is blades and bruises. But when a cave-in traps them in the dark, buried truths spill out and Hayden kisses her like he already knows he'll betray her. The map isn't cursed. She is. And the power awakening in her veins doesn't want to lead him to the Pyre. It wants to make the warlord kneel.

Violet St. Clair has only 120 days remaining. Each morning, she counts the days left. Every month, the Covenant drains her blood to energize the wardens protecting Veridia from outside monsters. At night, she shapes shadows into her deceased mother's face, pretending she isn't afraid. She is the last of her bloodline, and the curse holding the city together will kill her on her twenty-first birthday. She has made peace with this fate. Then, the plague arrives-a series of bodies arranged like offerings, with eyes frozen open and shadow-frost spreading through Veridia like a promise. The Covenant sends the Crimson Prince-Draven Fenrys, the man who murdered Violet's father fourteen years ago, her enemy, her nightmare- to investigate. She learned to hide because of him. When a mysterious note appears in ash, signed by her dead father, Violet follows it into the ruins of St. Vrain cathedral. The crypt collapses, and something ancient awakens beneath the spire. The only person who saves her is the man she swore to kill. Now, Violet must stop the plague, contain an entity awakening within her blood, and navigate an alliance with a monster that could destroy her faster than any curse. The city is built on her blood, and she intends to burn it down. A dying shadow-weaver with four months left must partner with her father's murderer to prevent a memory-fed plague-without letting the ancient entity inside her consume them both first.