The ever-reluctant future High Priestess of Midnight Crest, Ravenna's doubts about where her future calls her are further muddied by her secret and forbidden relationship with the heir to Wulfsgate, Drystan Dereham.

Kind and sensitive, Drystan Dereham wasn't born to be his father's heir, but his brother's abdication left the responsibility thrust upon his young shoulders. But his forbidden love for sorceress Ravenna Ravenwood will throw his whole world into chaos.

As the only daughter of Khallum Warwick, great Lord of the Southerlands, Esmerelda has always been given everything she needed—but never what she wanted. Having fallen for someone she can never have, she feigns her own death to be with him. But first, she must go into hiding with her love's brother, Jesse Strong.

Son of the greatest trader in the realm, Jesse has never needed or wanted for anything more than the life given him. When his brother, Ryan, falls for Esmerelda Warwick and is sent to prison for it, Jesse grudgingly swears an oath to protect Esmerelda.

Lisbet Dereham has always been restless, but never more so when she's chosen as one of the king's four brides. Her horrified parents have no choice but to comply, or invite war. But on the eve of her life belonging to the crown, Lisbet will take matters into her own hands.

They call him Cap, for no man retains his real name once he becomes a prisoner of the Wastelands. His crime, they say, was murder, and for that he is left alone by most. He has all but forgotten the life he left behind, and he prefers it that way, for nothing kills you faster than hope.

Although a middle daughter, Emberley Blackwood has never beens satisfied sitting still and looking toward duty. She has always known she was destined for more. Always felt the call to her distant ancestors, the Ravenwoods. To keep her elder sister from the king's clutches, Emberley will devise a quest for her siblings that leaves them all scattered across the kingdom—and Emberley on a firm path toward her fate.

The youngest child and only son of Lady Blackwood, Brandyn has been raised to be the heir, in a line that has always been ruled by women. A seer, Brandyn is sent to the Sepulchre, the magic consortium where Magi are trained and sent into their life assignments, but it is there he sees Emberley's call for help. He will leave his training behind to answer.