Magic is a curse. Power is a death sentence. Fate lies beyond them all.
In the walled nation of Daor, the monthly Cleansings are a spectacle of cruelty, public exiles of those accused of being Aetherian, a bloodline feared for its ability to manipulate energy.
Zara spends her life keeping her head down, ignoring her too-sharp instincts, the dreams that feel like warnings, and a sense that the dead are watching her.
She believes she can stay invisible. That her silence will keep her little brother safe. But she was wrong.
When he is falsely accused and exiled, Zara unleashes a power not even she knew she possessed.
Now hunted, she is forced to cross beyond the wall into the Barrenlands, a scarred wasteland where monsters roam and restless souls linger. There, she awakens a dark power the ancient Aetherians swore to silence-and a fate she cannot escape.
Zara soon realises that saving her brother means embracing the very thing the Aetherians tried to bury.
Even if it costs her sanity.
Even if it costs her soul.