In a race against the clock counting down to the Awakening, Knick and Shade are forced to run the King's Way in search of the answers that will lead them to Mesopotamia, to the sleeping power known as Tiamat. As they search for the five Tribes of Typhi who guard the pieces of the secret to the ancient city, Jilk and his friends are tasked with keeping the Enoch safe from the ex-Regent, whose loyalists seek both her and a long lost relic to empower their hunt for Mesopotamia. Meanwhile, the remaining Keepers struggle to delay an inevitable war between the angels and cogwheelers, a war which will significantly tip the Balance.