"The Nightbirds were once their city's best-kept secret, but now the secret's out. What's more, they can do feats of magic no one has seen in centuries...As the new leader of Eudea works to lift the prohibition on magic, the churchmen who do not support it and the gang lords who profit from it whisper rebellion. The secret resistance who once sheltered the Nightbirds is rallying, too...As war looms, and the empire's fate hangs from a knife's edge, the Nightbirds have to decide if becoming more than that are...to protect Simta is worth losing themselves entirely and the lives and loves they might have had." -- Provided by publisher.