It's amazing what you can do when you have no heart. Things haven't exactly been going Lieutenant Lucius "Luce" Bollhams way. Sure he beat back the Gythraul Legions, the forces he's trained are chasing them across the Twilit Kingdom. But Luce can't even celebrate the victory since the Queen decided to bury a soul-sucking artifact in his chest. Growing more ruthless and poisoning everything around him, Luce is desperate to break free, but how do you fight back when your own body has become a prison? And what do you do when part of you, that thing that wears your skin in your worst moments, starts liking the new arrangement? Alienating his allies and forced to serve a Queen who's sanity is questionable, Luce will be lucky to survive the next phase of his campaign. Trust flew out the window with the Gormstone, but new alliances are forming and everyone is forced to take sides in a conflict that may reach much further than the invading Gythraul. And in the midst of it all this remains a man who only wants a cause worth fighting for. He might be looking for a while, if he lives...