From the deepest snow drifts of the north to the glaring sun of the desert, from the depths of the ocean to the heights of the open sky there was an unease. It lived in every child, in every sighing tree and every twinkling star. This discontent swilled around one young woman, a woman with nothing but a calling. To deliver the shield and the sun, to raise up her who would bring peace. The time comes for Katherine of the mountain to wed, she and her companion Lily must travel across the twelve kingdoms to meet her husband whom she has never met. She witnesses, rage, magic, madness, war, poverty and becomes changed forever.

In the Empire, wizardry is expressly outlawed. Any of those who exhibit magical powers are taken away, never to be seen again. It's been this way for over one hundred years, and there is no way to fight back against the oppressive government-you can only attempt to escape it. Nineteen-year-old Imogen Reid does just that. When wizards find they can no longer hide safely inside the Empire, they turn to the Owls to flee it. Immy, along with her twin brother Eli, and the rest of the Owls have helped countless wizards escape the continent to live a safer life in the Free Nations. Immy is nothing if not an expert on the art of running away. Her life, however, is severely disrupted when she develops strange powers-powers that should be impossible for her to have. Before she knows it, she's been whisked away by a group of people calling themselves "Redcloaks," a name Immy has only heard in legends, and being told that she is in fact their next leader. The Redcloaks claim that she has been chosen by the spirits. She is the greatest wizard of them all. She is the Paragon. And nothing has ever terrified her more.