The sixth book in this action-packed, wildly original fantasy series by New York Times best-selling author Jasmine Walt. If Sunaya and Iannis thought there would be time to rest after returning from their last mission, they were sorely mistaken. The Minister sends them to face off with yet more dangerous enemies - this time in a lawless port in remote Garai, where pirates and slavers thrive, and everyone is fair game. To hide their undercover mission, Sunaya and Iannis travel to Garai as official guests to a state funeral. But Sunaya's luck runs out....

With the rebellion now in full swing, shifter-mage hybrid Sunaya Baine has no time for distractions. She must find out the true identity of the Benefactor and pull the plug on the Resistance's funding before they succeed in their grand plans for genocide and destruction. But the heat is upon Sunaya now, and it demands to be sated. And since the Resistance has marked her for death, she can no longer walk freely amongst the very people she is trying to save.

Home from their travels at last, Sunaya and Iannis are confronted with a threat against which even their strongest magic is largely helpless. The very ground under their city is becoming increasingly unstable, and there are disturbing predictions of an impending quake the likes of which Solantha hasn't seen in centuries. While their hands are full preparing for disaster, Iannis's most dangerous rival returns to Solantha, intent on finding anything he can use against Iannis.

In the city of Solantha, mages rule absolute, with shifters considered second-class citizens and humans something in between. No one outside the mage families are allowed to have magic, and anyone born with it must agree to have it stripped from them to avoid execution. Sunaya Baine, a shifter-mage hybrid, has managed to keep her unruly magic under wraps for the last 24 years.

With the sudden disappearance of Iannis, the Chief Mage, Solantha has erupted into pandemonium. Citizens are rioting in the streets, the Mages Guild is on a misguided warpath, and shifters and humans are fleeing the city in droves. Ridden with guilt, Sunaya defies the Mages Guild and goes off in search of Iannis, trekking into dangerous, uncivilized territory to try and make things right.