A pampered, naive girl with the forbidden gift of witchcraft. A jaded, bitter political pawn held captive under the city-oasis where she lives. Two lives about to collide.

Emrie Das fully understands her role in her status-seeking family. She's to stay quietly and politely out of the way. When she gets struck by a burgeoning gift of witchcraft, she knows she must rid herself of it before anything happens that might embarrass the family or get her caught and killed.

Her father comes to her with a proposition. Master the witchcraft. Use it to keep alive the imprisoned younger son of the city-oasis's ruler. Do so without being recognized, especially by the prisoner himself.

Deriek Valiyard has always known his brother would eventually kill him, and that's regardless of Deriek's mastery of sword and strategy. Deriek's death was foreordained by his birth, a brutal burden that's left him angry and untrusting. When a wide-eyed, terrified girl enters his dungeon-prison, he pegs her as a puppet and thus his enemy.

But they need each other. Deriek to survive the imprisonment and escape his deeply seeded bitterness. Emrie to master not just the witchcraft but the twisted political games of the city-oasis. It's the only way one of them won't end up dead.