The empire she serves is built on stolen light. Kael Ashbourne is the youngest shadow assassin in the Brightlands—hunted by her own kind, trusted by no one. She was made, not born: a weapon forged from three dead children's embers, shaped by the one woman who raised her, trained her, and now demands she kill her. But the woman's order comes with a price Kael didn't agree to, and the empire's perfect general—Cassian, a man who may have no memory of who he was before the crown made him—stands in the way. As the Veil between the two lands cracks and the sky burns from both sides, Kael and Cassian must descend into the Ashlands and uncover the truth about the light they carry: it was never theirs. It was taken. Now the only way to stop the world from shattering is to walk through the Veil's throat, face the woman who loved them like a mother, and choose a third path—one that burns the empire from the inside.