The Mandren Empire is in ruins. The King of Hyrel is dead. And the Bloody Feud for the Throne has begun.

With the king murdered and her brother Robert besieged in the ancient city of Valis, Princess Ellen of House Lyle must confront her greatest fears. To uncover the truth behind her father’s death, she’ll need to journey across the treacherous Kaspen Sea to the heart of House Casterlin—their family’s fiercest rivals.

As Ellen prepares to face her enemies, William of Erris must make an impossible choice: stay behind to support the kingdom’s second son, Byron, or follow the woman he loves into the heart of a deadly conspiracy.

Meanwhile, chaos reigns in the streets. Martin Krye, a rogue with a penchant for trouble, finds himself caught between submission to his overlords or embracing the violence that threatens to consume the empire.

And in the shadows, the assassin Jethra, from the ancient Order of Asheion, pursues her own quest for revenge—one marked by the swift strike of an arrow or the deadly thrust of a blade. But how does her vendetta tie into the fate of the realm?

As the Houses of Casterlin and Lyle prepare for war, dark forces begin to stir. Priests of Veranka, with their sinister curses, and the Acolytes of Muranda, worshipers of the bloodthirsty red-handed god, are rising to claim their own piece of a kingdom teetering on the edge of chaos.

Who will survive the Bloody Feud? And what greater evil lies waiting beneath the surface?