Publisher's Synopsis
Miralla knows that her cousin Nirim will be safe in the time lock, whatever the Creator's plans for him may be. As the empire's seer, Miralla follows the Creator's visions, even if she can make little sense of them at the time. But what she cannot decipher is the sudden disappearance of Ista, heiress apparent to the imperial throne. Ista's absence has sent the already quaking empire to its knees, and Miralla fears civil war may erupt. When an attempted kidnapping leaves Miralla lost and alone far from the empire, she must rely upon her unintentional rescuer, the seerrine Addagan, to help her find her way home.
Deep in an unfamiliar forest, Ista wakes up to find herself at the mercy of a strange but powerful kit, a taciturn beast lord called Firn. He claims he bears her no ill will, but Ista struggles to believe him. Her unwilling intrusion into the kit's forest home has brought her directly into danger's path, and she has no choice but to trust in the very kit she holds responsible for her troubles, if she ever wants to safely return to the empire.
The homelands of the different races suffer from dire plights, pushing them toward open conflict. The cousins face the persistent, insidious threats of the darkness as they navigate circumstances, both personal and political, that seem increasingly out of their control. Questions swirl in their minds, all leading to one choice: can they trust that the Creator's design is good? Or will desperation and disappointment be their only end?
