"A crown doesn't ensure power."In the empire of Dûrath, power did not grieve. The moment Emperor Nasren drew his last breath, the court began to move — old alliances shifting, new ambitions surfacing, and vultures dressing themselves in mourning black.Crown Princess Isolde Nasren had spent her entire life being underestimated. Too young. Too female. Too much her mother's daughter and not enough her father's heir. But her father had taught her one thing above all others — power given to you was not yours till you claimed it as yours.With a court full of wolves circling her throne, a Faith that believed a woman unworthy of the crown and an uncle whose ambition wore the mask of loyalty, Isolde had one choice. Outmaneuver them all. And she intended to do exactly that. But thrones built on old foundations hid old secrets. And somewhere beyond the Eastern Sea, something that was supposed to be dead was moving again.They thought they had buried it.They were wrong.