Her body is broken and shattered like so much glass. Cinder should be dead, shattered into an unrecognizable heap like the shapeshifting crow on which she plummeted from the sky, mid-battle, over the Kaleidoscope Fields before the eyes of her beloved, King Tristan. Instead, by the grace of powers that neither of them may ever fully understand, the King's Fighter narrowly escaped what seemed an inevitable fate. As she attempts to heal as fast as possible, while struggling against her own instincts to fight, the country Cinder loves marches deeper into the trenches of war, spurred on by her traitor brother, Ash. King Tristan desperately works to untangle the toxic web of lies woven throughout his land by the traitor, while struggling to get a hold on something new and dangerous brewing within himself. All the while, Rath misses the sea, and really wants some sweet breakfast rolls. Can Tristan prevent another bloody battle without Cinder by his side? Can he trust Cinder to remain on castle grounds long enough to heal her massive injuries? Can Cinder balance the fate of the country, the King's heart, and her fragile health with her burning desire to kill her own brother? Or will the shards of her past break her again?