Loren Calla and Darien Cassel have settled back into their old routines, grateful the dangers they’d faced on Kalendae are now behind them—or so they think. A new storm of trouble arrives when the Terran Imperator blackmails Loren into working for him. To keep Darien safe, she agrees. But the secrets she is forced to keep and her involvement with the imperator’s son threaten to drive her away from Darien in ways she might never recover from. Meanwhile, the Magical Protections Unit asks for Darien’s help in taking down the illegal arms trade, and to do that, he must claim his place at the top of the Darkslayers—a crown the other circles are willing to kill for. As he navigates his father’s criminal empire, he makes enemies of friends and friends of enemies—and soon finds himself buried so deep in Angelthene’s underbelly that he is uncertain he’ll ever escape. And as if that weren’t enough, Darien also fears he is going crazy when creatures appear that only he can see…