The Raven chose you; a Skin demon told little Lara -a secret she's kept for almost ten years. She still can't understand the ominous message when her sick, insane father viciously attacks her mother in front of her and the Raven -always by her side when calamity strikes. Lara must seek shelter with her friends, the Condé brothers, who disguise her as their younger sibling and smuggle her into war to protect her, but the darkest, most dangerous magic quickly catches up to her when she meets the Skin once more.

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Nicola, the heir of Condé, became head of the family when his father, the greatest Longbraid warrior, lost his leg in battle and his will to live with it. Nic, an aloof intellectual who didn't inherit the Condé talents for combat, can't fill his father's shoes or his younger brother's -already General at twenty-one- and struggles in a war he doesn't believe in, training the woman his brother has always loved while coping with his own tumultuous feelings for her.

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Alessandro is a farmer boy turned reluctant Leader. His love for Lara isn't enough to prevent her brutal attacker the night before his army must go to war in a quest to steal the Magic only the ruthless Skin possess. He must keep his men alive against the most lethal predators in the Ucrian Peninsula and confront the Lords in a constant battle of political wits to keep his grip over the army while hiding Lara in plain sight as he deals with his own soul-crushing guilt.