King Keiran Sipesh's father kept his mother's identity secret. Following his father's death, he's ready to discover who his mother was, and why his maternal lineage remained hidden. Hints of a family oath to destroy vampires arise, putting Keiran in opposition to the only living relative he has - his mother's sister, Queen Adira of Aleria.
Queen Adira invites her eager nephew to meet, but things in his mother's native land aren't what they seem. Their lineage's involvement with Lord Athan Vercilla slowly comes to light, and Keiran learns he's not as alone as he thought. He had an older brother Queen Adira swept into the dust of history, and she's ready to enforce her family's oath to remove Keiran from power and erase him, too.
However, family is more than blood, and Keiran will have to decide if he can justifiably endanger the lives of his surrogate brother and father, Jerris and Kanan Steiner, in pursuit of a brother he's never met. While he's desperate to free his brother, he risks leaving his country without a king and costing Jerris and Kanan their lives.