The Illandian Spring Tournament is about to reach its crescendo. With the king's only daughter, Danielle de Brie, and her twin brother, Kane, preparing to face each other in the tourney ring for the deciding match the citizens and nobles of Arkaelyon's capital city are in a fever of excited speculation. Determined to free herself from the fear her twin brother has always provoked in her and to show the world that men such as Kane de Brie can be defeated, Danielle has every intension of making her brother's title her own. But even as the two royals climb the stairs to Illandia's famous dueling ring, Danielle has no idea that a rescind coven of druids are about to change her world forever or that the deep animosity Kane and her share for one another is fated to plunge the realm into civil war. And certainly she is ignorant of the ancient gift that dwells in her bloodline. An odd dream is the only hint she has of the dangerous manipulation that is stirring in the shadows of her father's realm and her involvement in it. But when she makes passing mention of the dream to the Lord Protector, Father Joseph's response and the secrets he and a priestly order protect are destined to set her on a desperate and perilous path to save her father's realm from an unimaginable evil.