"Carson joins the ranks of writers like Kristin Cashore, Megan Whalen Turner, and Tamora Pierce as one of YA's best writers of high fantasy."--Locus Magazine

The second book in Rae Carson's award-winning and New York Times-bestselling trilogy Betrayal, love, and untold power fuel the heroic adventure of a seventeen-year-old princess turned warrior-queen. Fans of Tomi Adeyemi, Kendare Blake and Sarah J. Maas will be riveted.

She does not know what awaits her at the enemy's gate.

Elisa led her people to victory over a terrifying, sorcerous army. Her place as queen should be secure. But it isn't. Her enemies come at her like ghosts in a dream, from foreign realms and even from within her own court. And her destiny as the chosen one remains uncertain.

To conquer the power she bears, Elisa must journey from the hidden catacombs beneath her own city to treacherous seas and a long-forgotten island. With her go a one-eyed spy, a traitor, and the man with whom--despite everything--she is falling in love. If she's lucky, she'll return. But there will be a cost.

Don't miss The Empire of Dreams, Rae Carson's action-packed return to the world of The Girl of Fire and Thorns