In a brilliant departure from the novels that made Jesse Q. Sutanto a USA Today bestselling author--including Dial A for Aunties--comes the first book in a debut dark fantasy duology, following an assassin, a scholar, a con man, and a guard in a race to rediscover powerful lost magic and save their world...

Mara has no memory of life before her assassin training behind the fortress-like walls of Tchu-Morrokhai, which has been her world since she was five. Practicing discipline and strategy, sacrifice and solitude, she has dedicated herself to resisting the Divine Empress's plans of eradicating the all-but-forgotten magic. She longs for a world once again filled with magic--and freedom and love. And she'll do whatever it takes to find those things.

In the faraway city of Velingard, Livya is the privileged daughter of the revered scientist whose invention of an indestructible new metal was the catalyst for a great revolution. Yet Livya's bored of suitors and balls, more interested in philosophical debates. But when an invite to a secret salon leads to a kidnapping attempt, Livya is suddenly on the run--with the unlikely aid of charming con man Kaian, a once dear childhood friend inexplicably turned frosty stranger.

Captain Fonde has served Velingard faithfully in the twenty years since the revolution, and all has been peaceful... until now, when he's informed that their "indestructible" metal is inexplicably starting to crumble. Ships, bridges, buildings, statues--their entire post-revolution world is literally about to come apart. Could it be that the metal--and therefore the revolution--was flawed all along? Or is there something darker--evil, ancient, inhuman--at play?

With stunning world-building, Jesse Q. Sutanto weaves an epic tale of characters whose lives irrevocably intertwine--and unravel--as paths collide across continents, racing toward an explosive twist that will forever change all of their fates...