DANICA SHARDAE IS an avian shapeshifter, and the golden hawk’s form in which she takes to the sky is as natural to her as the human one that graces her on land. The only thing more familiar to her is war: It has raged between her people and the serpiente for so long, no one can remember how the fighting began. As heir to the avian throne, she’ll do anything in her power to stop this war—even accept Zane Cobriana, the terrifying leader of her kind’s greatest enemy, as her pair bond and make the two royal families one. Trust. It is all Zane asks of Danica—and all they ask of their people—but it may be more than she can give. A School Library Journal Best Books of the Year A VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror List selection

"After decades of strife, peace has finally been achieved in Kavet--but at a dark cost. Sorcery is outlawed, and anyone convicted of consorting with the beings of the other realms--the Abyssi and the Numini--is put to death. The only people who can even discuss such topics legally are the scholars of the Order of the Napthol, who give counsel when questions regarding the supernatural planes arise. Hansa Viridian, a captain in the elite guard unit tasked with protecting Kavet from sorcery, has always led a respectable life. But when he is implicated in a sorcerer's crimes, the only way to avoid execution is to turn to the Abyss for help--specifically, to a half-Abyssi man he's sworn he hates, but whose physical attraction he cannot deny. Hansa is only the first victim in a plot that eventually drags him, a sorcerer named Xaz, and a Sister of the Napthol named Cadmia into the depths of the Abyss, where their only hope of escape is to complete an infernal task that might cost them their lives"--Page 4 of cover.