A battle-scarred knight who dreams of peace. A secret princess who knows the Empire's darkest truths. And a marriage written in blood and betrayal.

After seven years of war, Remin of Andelin returns as the Empire's most infamous hero . . . and the son of its greatest traitors. His reward is a ravaged duchy on the edge of the Empire, a noble title that only brings more enemies, and the hand of a princess no one's ever heard of.

Princess Ophele Agnephus was raised in exile, the illegitimate daughter of the Divine Emperor and a disgrace to the sacred stars. Bound by her father's bloody legacy and distrusted by her husband, she faces an even deadlier choice: to protect a secret that could shatter the Empire, or tell the truth about the cataclysm that destroyed Remin's world.

Remin can't afford to trust her. Even as he labors to build his new city by day and protects it from devils by night, he knows that Ophele could be everything: his love and his bride, the foundation of his new House . . . or the Emperor's weapon, placed at his side to destroy everything he has left.