When a series of dark rituals devastates the fledgeling Church of Canta, Jane and Cinzia realize they have ignored the movements in the shadows for too long. Daemons lurk at the edge of the world, and they are done knocking. With Knot at her side, Cinzia deals with dark beings to fight the greater evil.
Meanwhile, Astrid's attempts to elude the Black Matron backfire, and she faces that which she fears above all things: her own past. Winter, in hopes of regaining something of her old life, returns to Pranna to find the village nothing like it used to be. She soon finds herself wrapped up in the Druids, a tiellan faction in fierce conflict with the humans. With Urstadt the soldier and Galce the tailor at her side, she must choose how to use her still-growing, all-consuming power—if she can manage to control it at all.
