The balance of power in the city is shifting. Nash Harkesh is deliberately pushing it toward collapse. His business interests squeeze the community further into desperation, poverty and addiction. His soldiers prowl the streets, and his sons hunt humans for food. When mankind lies in ruins he'll be there to pick up the pieces, and dragons will once again own the world. Alsander Aubertin wants to eradicate the dragons. It's the legacy of a Silene Knight: Avenging a centuries-long trail of human deaths. But the lives of his enemies are interwoven with his own in ways he never thought to prepare for. Jacan Jantus is stifled by a clan holding tight to its set ways. He sees plainly that the age-old war is a hair's breadth from re-eruping. Jacan can wait for someone to listen, or he can take a side before it's too late. When the enemy is tearing up the fabric of your life strand by strand, the line between holding your ground and chasing ghosts can prove elusive. How far do the dead want you to follow?