Five hundred years of peace between worlds. One night to burn it all down.
Detective Bridget Campbell has finally caught her breath - a solved case, a full glass, Moric's arm around her waist at Estrellien's biggest celebration of the year. It doesn't last. When a family is found incinerated in their beds that same night, the evidence points to an impossible suspect: Starwing, the city's own guardian dragon.
Bridget doesn't believe it. Neither does Moric. But belief isn't evidence, and someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure the world sees a monster rather than a frame-up. Tampered photographs. Planted blood. A mob calling for the dragon's head. As anti-magic extremists seize the murders as proof the alliance was always a mistake, Bridget and Moric have hours-not days-to unravel a conspiracy that reaches into their own department, before the connection between worlds is severed for good.
With corruption creeping closer to home than she can stomach, and a killer hiding behind a righteous cause, Bridget will have to decide how far she's willing to go for the truth-and for the man she's already promised, without ever saying it out loud, that she'd burn the world down for.
Some fires aren't accidents. Some falls aren't endings.