Seventeen-year-old Ilarys Viendry never expected—or wanted—to become queen of Vorillia. Raised by self-serving guardians who have spent years doubting her fitness to rule, she doubts herself just as deeply. But the throne offers one thing she cannot walk away from: the power to bring home Irete, the beloved sister taken from her after her elemental magic was discovered and sent to a military academy where those with such abilities are trained into weapons for the crown.

Days after Ilarys’s coronation, an assassination attempt leaves her council determined to tighten its control. Desperate to prove she is more than their pawn, Ilarys secretly seeks a peaceful resolution with the Black Wolf, a notorious pirate terrorizing Vorillia’s seas.

Instead, he kidnaps her.

Far from court, Ilarys uncovers a truth her kingdom has buried: the crown she wears is complicit in the persecution of people like Irete. With unrest rising and the line between enemy and ally beginning to blur, Ilarys must decide what kind of queen she will become—and whether saving her sister means dismantling the very system that gives her the power to do it.