My happily ever after started with a coma I didn't think things could get worse. Then I was accidentally eye-napped. It's complicated, but because of me, a four-year old is being hunted by a kidnapping-murderer and all she has is a Barbie head to help her out. If I don't do something, she's going to disappear -permanently. I have one question: How can I save her when all I can do is jump from one set of printed eyes to another?

Brenna assumed everyone could modify an entire species, raise the dead, and speak with Deity because she's done all of those things and more. Yet, even with all her power, she can't make Talon love her. Talon has questions no one will answer. Like why he has to keep moving, what his father does for a living, and what really happened to his mother. The answers he does receive aren't comforting. Odd things have started to happen - the ship he is on sinks, a woman from legend rises from the sea, and he has to keep a secret he never wanted to know. Everywhere he goes, danger tracks him, from the Ammon Islands to the far western shore of Utak. They are worlds apart, but one step closer to powering the Chest of Souls.

Eralee is a misfit among immortals. She is supposed to marry a philandering river Prince. She doesn't want him. She wants to save the human called Klaus. Klaus lives alone at the edge of the Everaude Forest, a dangerous forbidden place. He's convinced he will never know love until he meets Eralee. Unfortunately, she's immortal. There is another immortal who wants him. She is Kamichen, the Winter Witch, known in legend for eating men's hearts. She has plans for Klaus and they don't include Eralee.

Talon and Brenna been hunted their entire lives by the very evil they must destroy. No one will tell them that when they finally meet that evil, they may not win. Brenna doesn't know that her mother is Hi-Sha of Eyes, or that her father was an assassin and he's supposed to be dead. She doesn't even know her pet is the Queen of all Shee's. Brenna is safe because she is oblivious to all but Talon. Talon felt safe until he met Brenna. Once he is ordered to protect her, he's had to fight monsters he never knew existed, run away from an assassin, and escape a forest full of carnivores. His father burned down their cottage and left him with people he just met and he isn't sure who to trust. In the meantime, the Chest of Souls waits to be powered and neither child can guess the price.

Brenna is on the other side of time to be trained. To her horror, it is a place she cannot reach or see Talon. Others are there, including her mysterious teacher - a woman known only as the Forest Wife. She has eerie eyes yet is beautiful, as hard as Tasut, and as intelligent as Brenna's mother. That combination doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. The Forest Wife already knows Brenna will do whatever she has to do, pay whatever price must be paid, to save Talon. That fact guarantees her obedience - for now. Talon is in Sogo - courtesy of his father's great fist. He is to be sold at auction and join those destined for the Barracks. He can't see how he can protect Brenna while he's in Sogo. His plan at the moment is to survive the training and the odds are stacked against him: 300-1