Alethea Elysees, The Third Princess of the Valyra Kingdom, understands the world she was born into. A pawn for her father's politics, she has survived by playing the game she was born into. Alethea's only respite from the tortures of court is her maid Galen; a childhood friend turned lover. Now, Alethea has been sent away to marry the crown prince of the Alderick Empire to secure the alliance between the two warring nations. When she is banished from Alderick for a crime she did not commit, she is sent to the Dead Lands, a land of monsters ruled by the Master of Vultures. Alethea must battle her way through the Dead Lands to save her lover and secure the alliance to prevent all out war. And everywhere she looks, the vultures have begun to circle.