Balance hangs by a thread and Eklean is on the brink of terrifying change. Devlyn wakes in a strange room with his connection to Aliel mysteriously gone and his body broken. Time is not on his side-Eklean needs him. Servants of Shadow have infiltrated Eklean's cities, undermining their safety and spreading doubt about who can be trusted. Under the growing Darkness and the Erynien Empire's intensifying pressure to submit, the withering Lucillian Alliance maintains hope for the one named in prophecy.

While Devlyn's body heals, his misery over Aliel's absence prevents his soul from healing amid spreading rumors that the long believed extinct House of Lorenthien survived Erynor's last reign of terror, hidden in a small, remote village. The Lorenthien descendants and the heir are now said to be scattered across the war-torn continent. After fourteen hundred years without an Exalted Aryl, the Luminari aryls question whether the long absent Lorenthiens have the right to reclaim their throne.

As the world waits for Devlyn to fully recover, doubts arise over his abilities as a Phaedryn without a phoenix and whether or not he can protect not just the Luminari elves but all Eklean. Can Devlyn resolve the battle within himself before it is too late?