Ulric Darktalon is a thief, a liar, and a reckless follower of the mad goddess of luck. He has come to the city of Trumric with plans to steal a fortune and become a legend. Simple, if he can avoid the daggers of the local gangs and the watchful eyes of the Imperaré, the masters of all crime in the Republic's capital. Perhaps a bit too ambitious for a young orphan from the provinces, but Neesis demands madness and bold action!

Julia is in need of a dangerous man, and she wants none other than Ulric. A young woman shouldn't have need of a bodyguard, but what choice does one have when a mysterious enemy has set the city against you? To Ulric, Julia is an irresistible mystery: a patrician's poise in poor plebeian cloth; a simple actress hiding the power of a goddess.

Luciano, known as the dreaded Hound of Nyx, is the Dark Assembly's most feared enforcer and assassin. The Assembly, the Imperaré's greatest rival, has dispatched him to Trumric in pursuit of a stolen relic. Is the artifact worth the death it inevitably leaves in its wake? Or, as Luciano begins to suspect, are all who pursue it cursed?

When thief and assassin collide, old rivalries are reignited, sending Ulric on an impossible heist that will test the uttermost limits of his mortal skill and divine luck and threaten the precarious balance of power between the self-proclaimed princes of the Imperaré.