Meet Elias Batesian, recently resurrected revenant and once-Watcher, now the royal family's most loyal defender and partner. Sure, eldritch entities and strange mages keep calling him a "thrall," but he doesn't have time to think about that. There's a mage-king and a pregnant queen to protect. 

But the history he thought he (literally) buried is returning to exact the price of what he's done for Beau, and he'll have to reckon with the man he was before his heart-mage—and might have to become again to save them all. 

​Meet Victoire Penamour, Queen of Granvallée, ferocious politician and scholar of magic. She plays the politics Beau can't, leading the kingdom into peace and prosperity with the help of Elias's supernatural eyes and ears.  

As much as she loves them both, she can't help but wonder if they're wrong to believe the returning mages are dangerous; magic is a wondrous thing. With a heart-mage on her arm and another growing inside her, she'll have to balance her duty to her kingdom, her lifelong wonder about magic, and her partners' fears.

​Meet Beau, a heart-mage just coming into his magic and a king just stepping into his power.

Too honest for a politician, too gentle for a swordsman, and too eager to see the good in people, Beau's not what Granvallée expected in a king. But as a heart-mage, he gives his people hope that magic and their nameless gods will return. 

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Unfortunately, all magic has a cost, and Beau must come to terms with what he—and his loved ones—will have to pay for his power.