Evonalé Yunan is supposed to somehow free her grandmother's enslaved people, but she's merely a child, and her father is the powerful fire mage who subjugates the realm. She has therefore fled home, her half-siblings, and the father who really should've been her uncle. Unfortunately, it's the middle of winter. Fortunately, following her mother's directions has put her in another king's hunting grounds. To Evonalé's bewilderment, that king picks her up and gives her a place in his palace. The prince seeks her out to tease and befriend. Then one of Cook's daughters starts teaching her magic, and a scullery maid proves herself immune to poison. Evonalé isn't the only one with secrets. Lallie Nonsire Cobbleson is no stranger to prejudice. Between her heritage and her childhood spent in an orphanage, she knows full well how most folks like people they find strange. So when her friend, the illegitimate Evonalé Yunan, gets a crown and a husband, it doesn't surprise Lallie that assassins soon follow. Assassins that Lallie can assassinate in return, if she wants to. If she dares admit what she's become. But folks fear and hate what she is with good reason. Mages, folks who use magic, commonly go insane, and Lallie's magic is far stronger than most. Strong enough that it's taken control of her before, and done things she never would. Protecting her friend the queen will force Lallie to stop playing human and to admit what she is, abandoning the only life she's known. And that's only if she survives the friends whose trust she'll shatter by admitting her lies-and the magic she'll have to use in doing it. Geddis Feyim is tired of others complaining because they have all she ever wanted. Her father and elder sister serve as prophets for the king, their father's half-brother, but that doesn't help the rest of the family. Her mother's dead, her brother's insane, and she's working herself sick to keep her uncle's castle clean despite other servants' incompetence. Something has to change. She can't become nobility or earn a title, but she's a reasonably educated young woman, with Finding magic and blood ties to a few of the more powerful realms in the area. She has options. More than she wants to consider. Whatever she chooses, it'll shape the rest of her life.