Kalida has spent her whole life being controlled. She's only beginning to understand how little of herself is left.

The fighting has quieted. For the first time she has something that resembles a life - a garden, a fragile routine, Tiergan close enough to make her forget what she was made to be. But the men who forged her didn't raise a weapon to let it rest, and the ancient thing coiled in her blood was never content to stay silent.

Beneath the calm, something is turning. Old loyalties sour into suspicion, a movement gathers against everything she is, and the power sharing her veins presses harder against the walls she's spent a lifetime holding shut.

Everyone in Kalida's life is certain they know what she's for - her commander, her enemies, the voice beneath her skin. The only question left is whether anything of her own survives the answer.

Peace was never the reward.

It was the leash.