A mother bereft. A captive released. An ancient power awakens.

Aeryn Haranae is expected to join the family trade. She faces a bleak future trapped in a village which holds nothing but painful memories of the daughter she lost in infancy. She would do anything for a way out. An act of mercy changes everything when she stumbles upon an injured, ex-slave with a mysterious set of markings on his hands. Grim Stonebreaker harbors an unmet thirst for justice and claims no memory of life before he was taken as a child.

In one final attempt to delay the inevitable, Aeryn leaves home under the selfless guise of reuniting Grim with his family. She quickly discovers that the world, and her traveling partner, are more dangerous than she realized. Try as she might, she can't shake the pain from her past.

When Grim's connection to an ancient power embroils them in a long-dormant conflict between dragons, the pair must race across the North to rally his people before the Rune Reaper finishes the genocide he began decades earlier. But if there's to be any hope of setting things right, Aeryn and Grim must confront their ghosts, and survive.