Ferica Sivneigh has spent five long years on the run, evading the forces of the despot and usurper Yorvath Darragh of Curragh Cael. Darragh wants every last Gods-Gifted dead or under his thumb, and to punish Ferica’s defiance of his decree, he’s slaughtered her family and driven her far from her home. As her minor Gift drains away, Ferica faces a hard truth—alone and worn to the bone, with a determined hunter closing in, certain death no longer looms. It beckons. But former Advance Company captain Radek Aneurin hasn’t gambled his entire career only to be denied his prey now that he’s found her. His future depends on succeeding at a task that’s thwarted the best soldiers and mercenaries in the realm: find the Gifted and deliver her to the city of her birth. Alive. Two hard, desperate people with nothing left to lose strike a surprising bargain to benefit them both. But the Gifts of Gods are treacherous and fickle, and Ferica and Radek are pawns in a game neither understand. Fate awaits them each back in the Cael, but getting there in one piece depends on how well they learn to work together….