A hundred years before Noam and Dara, two very different revolutionaries fought for justice on Carolinian soil. Sixteen-year-old Calix Lehrer has spent the past four years being tortured in a government-run hospital by scientists seeking to understand his dangerous magical abilities. Now that he’s free, he joins with his brother Adalwolf, a so-called terrorist who leads a violent militia fighting to destroy a United States that seeks to exterminate all witchings. Calix has always been smart–too smart for his own good, Adalwolf would say–and when Adalwolf asks, he’s only too willing to apply that intelligence to military strategy. But something’s not right in Calix’s mind, and the more he plots death and destruction, the deeper that darkness takes root. And if Adalwolf can’t figure out a way to help his brother, there might be nothing left of Calix to save.

In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia. The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear. Caught between his purpose and his heart, Noam must decide who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of the greater good.

In the sequel to The Fever King, Noam Álvaro seeks to end tyranny before he becomes a tyrant himself. Six months after Noam Álvaro helped overthrow the despotic government of Carolinia, the Atlantians have gained citizenship, and Lehrer is chancellor. But despite Lehrer’s image as a progressive humanitarian leader, Noam has finally remembered the truth that Lehrer forced him to forget—that Lehrer is responsible for the deadly magic infection that ravaged Carolinia. Now that Noam remembers the full extent of Lehrer’s crimes, he’s determined to use his influence with Lehrer to bring him down for good. If Lehrer realizes Noam has evaded his control—and that Noam is plotting against him—Noam’s dead. So he must keep playing the role of Lehrer’s protégé until he can steal enough vaccine to stop the virus. Meanwhile Dara Shirazi returns to Carolinia, his magic stripped by the same vaccine that saved his life. But Dara’s attempts to ally himself with Noam prove that their methods for defeating Lehrer are violently misaligned. Dara fears Noam has only gotten himself more deeply entangled in Lehrer’s web. Sooner or later, playing double agent might cost Noam his life.

Lehrer is in prison, and Noam and Dara are finally free. They have a house in Lakewood, they have a dog and jobs that don’t involve killing people and maybe, just maybe, a chance at a happy ending But Lehrer’s trial is fast-approaching, and with it comes all the dark memories Noam and Dara have tried so hard to bury. Can their relationship survive the truth about what happened to both of them in Level IV?