In a kingdom ravaged by the Wither, a plague that turns life to ash, the official story is simple: blame the Untethered, the wild mages of chaos. Enforcing this lie is the Obsidian Guard, and their most feared weapon is Captain Julian Ogden, a man whose life is a monument to vengeance against the magic that destroyed his family.
Ava is a librarian, living a life of quiet terror. She is Untethered, her immense power a secret she must chain, for to be discovered is to be consecrated-a fate worse than death. When a single, desperate act of protection shatters her carefully constructed world, she becomes the primary target of the very hunter whose legend haunts her nightmares.
But when the hunter corners his prey, he uncovers a truth that shatters his reality. The Magisterium is built on a foundation of lies, the Wither is a symptom of a cosmic prison's decay, and the consecrations are nothing but ritual sacrifices to feed a dying machine. Branded traitors and forced to flee, the captain whose faith is broken and the woman who is the key to salvation must forge a desperate alliance. They are the kingdom's only hope, and its most wanted fugitives, in a race to restore a forgotten balance before the world built on lies consumes itself entirely.
