When Synn finds himself behind enemy lines and a captive of the Hands of Tarot yet again, Queen Nix discovers he’s not the boy she’d tortured before. He’s now a man, one who will not be controlled as easily. She will do anything to claim him, even if that means letting him go, and giving him the one thing he desires most. Peace.

Armed with a treaty bearing Nix’s seal, Synn sets off to bridge the gap between the world’s two reigning tyrants, the Hands of Tarot and the ruling Great Families. Nix insists she will only honor the treaty if he agrees to be her sworn knight. The Great Families refuse to sign it if he abandons them for her.

Juggling an overwhelmingly large Family himself and Nix and his mother, leader of the Great Families, he decides to do something neither side could have foreseen.

He invites all the tribes to council, allowing each of them a voice and the power to choose their own fate. The only thing they must do in order to gain a seat is to prove their worth in the Peace Games.

As a power far greater than either the Hands or the Families ever had continues to grow, a new fight begins.