The Drought of Girls has ended, but the rift it broke open between the Queendoms is not so easily healed. Queen Heliane vows to make her son Paulus the nation's first ruling King or die trying. Scorpican troops amass on the border of Arca, ready to attack. And within Arca itself, its young, unready queen finds her court a nest of vipers and her dreams besieged by a mysterious figure with unknown intentions.

Preparing for the queens' sixteenth birthday celebration and navigating the fallout of the Quickening, the sisters reassess their strategic paths to the throne using new understandings of their powers and destinies.

"Earl Hugh Dulonget of Hillcrest was a formidable knight, used to getting what he wanted. This time, he got himself into a bind. His uncle's will had a codicil: He must marry. And Hugh had just insulted his would-be bride by calling her a peasant! How could he win back her esteem--and her hand? Everyone seemed to have advice. Some men-at-arms thought that Hugh could win the fair Willa's love by buying her baubles. The old witch who was her guardian...

When King Louis X of France is murdered by the mother-in-law of Philippe of Poitiers, who wants him to become king, Louis leaves no living sons but a pregant widow, and the country faces falling into chaos.

In order to claim a vast fortune, Tabitha Timmons, a penniless spinster, must marry the very respectable Mr. Barkworth, but finds herself torn between the good fortune that guarantees her security and her feelings for the Duke of Preston, who vows to save her from a passionless union.

"As the King of England's illegitimate daughter, 17-year-old Evan Bright knows a thing or two about keeping secrets. But when she's forced to spend the summer in London with her father and the royal family, who aren't exactly thrilled she exists, her identity is mysteriously revealed, and suddenly the world is dying to know every juicy lie the press prints about her. After a fun night turns deadly and Evan becomes the primary suspect in a murder investigation,...