When Lore was thirteen, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. In the ten years since, she has lived by one rule: don’t let them find you. This is difficult to maintain when her death magic ties her to the city. Mortem, the magic born from death, is a high-priced and illicit commodity in Dellaire, and Lore’s job running poisons keeps her in food, shelter, and relative security.

When a run goes wrong and Lore’s power is revealed, she is taken by the Presque Mort, a group of warrior-monks sanctioned to use Mortem for the Sainted King. Lore expects to be executed, but King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore must use her magic to find out what is happening and who in the King’s court is responsible, or face death.

Lore is thrust into the Sainted King’s glittering court, where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted. Guarded by Gabriel, a duke-turned-monk, and continually running up against Bastian, August’s heir, Lore tangles in politics, religion, and forbidden romance as she attempts to navigate a debauched and opulent society. But the life she left behind in the catacombs is catching up with her, and even as Lore makes her way through the Sainted court above, the past may be drawing closer than she thinks.