Najlah is on the hunt for the traitorous coward who attempted to assassinate the king and nearly killed Najlah's brother in the process. But the hunt has taken his team deep into the Shide, the treacherous, freezing mountains controlled by the mysterious Lukos, feral wolf shifters who do not tolerate trespassers. When the Lukos come upon them, Najlah is reluctantly intrigued. The Lukos, especially the one called Barkus, are nothing like the soft humans he spends most of his time around. They thrive in the brutal cold the way he thrives in volcanic fire. For the first time, it feels like Najlah may have found someone who can equal the fierceness of dragons, and see them as more than demons. But if he hopes to explore the bond forming with the Lukos, he must first survive the enemy—and the Shide.

In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Prince Tevra by his own family, Najlah and Barkus are assigned to his protection. While playing bodyguard to a measly human is far beneath Najlah's lethal skills, he can't deny he's intrigued by the man whose blood is now sunk into his very bones, a man who proves to have magic literally carved into his skin. Rather than back down in the face of failure, Prince Tevra's family only turns more ruthless, willing to pay any price to obtain the war and bloodshed they're so desperately seeking. But they didn't count on facing a dragon born in a volcano, a wolf forged in snow and ice, or Tevra himself, who has plenty to say about the family who ordered him stabbed to death in his own bed.