KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE, AND YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER A Dragon and ten Barrani wouldn't be anyone's ideal roommates if a person wants peace and tranquility at home. The residue of three Draco-Barrani wars can make things pretty awkward--on a good day. Kaylin Neya has run out of good days. In the upheaval surrounding the Academia, the Tower in the fief of Candallar is now without its lord. The Towers were created to protect Elantra against Shadow. Dragon Bellusdeo wants to captain the Tower and continue a war she'll never be able to abandon. But Sedarias, leader of the Barrani cohort, wants the Tower for the cohort. And Barrani and Dragons don't negotiate, even when they're living under the same roof. If there were ever a time for Shadow to strike, it's now, when alliances are fractured and the Tower is vulnerable for the first time in centuries. More than ever, Kaylin needs her friends to work together if they're going to be able to stop the threat to Elantra.

Continuing the struggle she began in "Into the Dark Lands," Erin--newly dubbed Sara--is forcefully put to sleep for 300 years while her Lord finishes overtaking his enemies--and Sara's kinsmen. After conquering and slaughtering the last of the Bright Heart lines, he awakens an amnesia-ridden Sara and assigns one of his slaves, a fellow "child of the blood," to comfort her. As Sara's memory slowly returns and her rage intensifies, the Servants of the Dark Heart and the Dark Heart itself become increasingly dangerous to both her and her caretaker.