Five years after poisoning her gang leader, Ondrakja, and fleeing Nadežra, the half-Vraszenian con artist Ren returned with her adopted sister, Tess, in tow. Their plan was simple: Ren would masquerade as a relative of the noble but declining House Traementis. Once adopted and inscribed into their register, she and Tess could skim enough wealth to set themselves up for life.
But none of it went as planned. Ren found herself caught between the Traementis leader, Donaia; the Vraszenian Vigil captain Grey Serrado; the crime lord turned respectable businessman Derossi Vargo; and the Rook, a vigilante who opposes the nobility. To win acceptance with the Traementis, she had to gain them a new charter to replace the broken numinat responsible for cleansing the West Channel of the River Dežera—a magical structure destroyed through Traementis corruption some years before.
Polluted water was only one of Nadežra’s problems, though. A sudden rash of street children dying from an inability to sleep led Grey to stories of “Gammer Lindworm,” a monster from Vraszenian folklore, while Vargo uncovered evidence of a new drug called ash, which gave its users nightmarish visions with the power to kill. On an evening later dubbed the Night of Hells, someone poisoned the city’s leadership and visiting Vraszenian dignitaries with ash—and Ren along with them. But instead of giving horrible visions, it pulled them all into the shifting realm called Ažerais’s Dream. Together with Donaia’s son, Leato, Ren attempted to escape… but they encountered Vraszenian creatures called zlyzen, and a twisted hag Ren recognized as Ondrakja. Although the Rook pulled Ren from the dream into safety, ending the nightmare, the zlyzen tore Leato apart.
In the aftermath, Ren found herself incapable of sleep. With her con threatening to unravel around her, an unlikely set of allies came together to save her life. Vargo ultimately journeyed into Ažerais’s Dream to bring back the missing part of Ren’s spirit, restoring her ability to sleep. Because the Rook had discovered her con during her sleeplessness, Ren speculated that Vargo might be the vigilante and had saved her to protect her secret. She also learned that Leato’s death was no accident: The decline of House Traementis was due to a long-standing curse—one that had somehow managed to strike Ren as well. Although the astrologer Tanaquis Fienola was able to remove the curse, its source remained unknown.
Ren, Grey, and Vargo realized that Ondrakja had survived the poisoning and become Gammer Lindworm, and that she was creating ash by letting the zlyzen feed on children’s dreams. Before they could capture her, an agent of Mettore Indestor, Nadežra’s military leader, sparked a riot among the restless Vraszenians of the Lower Bank. Quelling it caused a schism among the Stadnem Anduske, a group of Vraszenian radicals, which left their leader, Andrejek, near death.
But even the riot was only a cover for Mettore’s true plan. Working in partnership with Gammer Lindworm, he planned to use ash to destroy the Wellspring of Ažerais, the holy site of the Vraszenian people, and then to blame it on the Anduske. While Vargo dismantled the magical numinat around the wellspring and the Rook fought Mettore, Ažerais’s Dream transformed Ren into a masked heroine, the Black Rose, and she confronted Gammer Lindworm. Betraying Ondrakja a second time, Ren turned the zlyzen against their mistress.
For Mettore’s crimes, House Indestor was disbanded. For his assistance in saving the city, Vargo was elevated to nobility. The events at the wellspring had proved to Ren that he was not the Rook… and worse, she discovered he had betrayed her. Vargo was secretly working with another nobleman, Ghiscolo Acrenix, and he’d sold her out to Mettore on the Night of Hells. Realizing that Vargo had also killed Grey’s brother, Kolya, Ren vowed revenge.
As did the Rook. For the man who wears the hood… is Grey Serrado.