Every month, the great black dragon comes. Every month, a child is snatched. That's all the village of Kalma knows. But Semra was one of those children, and she knows the truth: there is a dragonlord in the mountain, raising the children into his own personal syndicate of assassins. When seventeen-year-old Semra learns they aren’t fighting evil but are in fact evil themselves, she risks everything to expose the dragonlord. As one young, nobody assassin against the king's security and an army of her former colleagues bent on her destruction, Semra must uncover the truth and save the royal family before the dragonlord rips them apart and plunges the kingdom into war.

Bloodlust: the one thing she’s good at. The one thing she must fight against. Ex-assassin Semra may have broken free of the mountain where the dragonlord indoctrinated her as a child, but she can’t shake his voice in her head – or the suspicious sideways glances following her every step. The people closest to her seem distant, and the royal family's grief serves as a daily reminder of Semra's failures. With rogue assassins on the run and a dragon far too large for a castle, Semra is desperate to get away. When the princess is kidnapped, Semra accepts the mission to save her – a final penance to the royal family before disappearing for good. The neighboring king's rage and paranoia grow as the two kingdoms mobilize for war. Tasked with working alongside the prince, Semra tries desperately to prove her own innocence to the court, even as her blood-stained history condemns her.

Assassins aren't often framed for murder. But when ex-assassin Semra is falsely accused of murdering a king, she is forced to go on the run—only to discover an underground network of old enemies bent on her destruction and a mysterious ailment keeping her from working her best. As tensions rise, Semra must gather evidence to clear her name, find a remedy for her ailment, and stop rogue assassins from interfering with the war.

Magic was destroyed six hundred years ago. And yet a powerful magician is threatening the Shamaran castle from the inside. When someone from her past kicks ex-assassin Semra out of the only place she calls home, she must race against the clock to thwart an ancient prophecy. An enemy is destined to unlock the bounds of magic, and if Semra fails, the magician will become unstoppable and Jannemar will fall. As Semra sets out to secure a weapon of legend, she is faced with her greatest questions is forgiveness possible for a blood-stained ledger, and can someone with a dark past deserve authority? With her insecurities and unstable new abilities in tow, Semra must lead the army to victory against enemy forces, a powerful magician, and a great dragonlord, or watch everyone and everything she loves die.