A decade has passed since the barbarian Loethar brutally conquered the last remaining, most powerful realm in the Denova Set—though the coveted Valisar Enchantment, the irresistible ability to coerce and control, eludes him still. Ten years since the warlord butchered the Set's royals and feasted on their blood.

But he did not kill them all.

Having secretly escaped Loethar's wrath, the young Valisar prince Leonel has grown to manhood under the protection of the notorious highwayman Kilt Faris. Now the boy king wants more than his rightful throne of Penraven—he wants revenge. But not all of enslaved Penraven wishes for Leonel's rule; indeed, Loethar has spent the past ten years uniting the Set's realms into a peaceful, prosperous empire. And unbeknownst to all, the true inheritor of the Valisar Enchantment is awakening—and a dark threat, far more sinister than even the invasion of the barbarian horde a decade earlier, is poised to threaten the Crown and reveal the most shocking Valisar secret of all.