Lark Silvertree has spent twenty-five years running from her father. Now Theron Duskwood has found her, and his price for the lives of everyone she loves is her obedience.
Stripped of allies, imprisoned in his army camp, and forced to use her magic in service of his ambition, Lark faces a choice that will cost her everything, no matter which way she turns. She can refuse and watch the people she loves die. Or she can give her father control of the most powerful magical conduit in Ianorrah and hope she survives long enough to undo the damage.
She chooses love. Not everyone agrees with the price.
When the man she loves discovers what she's done to save him, it threatens to destroy the only thing she wasn't willing to lose. And with Duskwood's grip tightening on Summerbright, a city suffocating under occupation, and dark magic spreading like poison through the land, there is no time to heal what's broken between them before the war begins.
To reclaim her future, Lark will have to face the battle she's been running from her entire life. Not against her father's army or his corrupted magic, but against the fear that loving someone will always end in loss.