Years after a voiceless captive was saved by Duke Lysander and secretly trained in the arcane arts, their fragile love is torn apart by a treason plot that destroys the duke's house. To keep Kaelen safe, Lysander sends him away. Now Kaelen reigns as the Empire's feared High Priest, while the disgraced noble is brought before him under the guise of a musician. Forced to face their past, they expose the throne's deadly scheme, bring its architects down, and forge a kingdom where no one can be owned.