En su aldea pagana oculta en el bosque, Evike es la única mujer sin poderes. Así que cuando los soldados de la Orden Sagrada de los Leñadores llegan reclamando a una niña para el sacrificio de sangre de su rey, los aldeanos solo tienen a una persona que ofrecer. Pero cuando en su ruta hacia la capital, la comitiva es atacada y todos excepto Evike y un Leñador solitario son masacrados, no tienen otra opción que confiar el uno en el otro. Salvo que él no es un Leñador cualquiera: es el deshonrado príncipe Gáspár Bárány, cuyo padre necesita magia pagana para consolidar su poder. Mientras viajan desde la glacial tundra del norte hasta la contaminada capital, Evike y Gáspár crean un frágil pacto que hace que, poco a poco, su aversión se transforme en afecto. Pero la confianza puede traicionarse fácilmente, y mientras Evike descubre su propia magia oculta, ella y Gáspár deberán decidir dónde reside realmente su lealtad.
In her forest-veiled pagan village, Evike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king’s blood sacrifice, Evike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered. But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Evike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Evike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother. As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Evike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.
