The Silver Empire is in ruins. War is in the wind. Kagen and his allies are on the run from the Witch-king. Wild magic is running rampant everywhere. Spies and secret cabals plot from the shadows of golden thrones. Kagen Vale is the most wanted man in the world, with a death sentence on his head and a reward for him --- dead or alive --- that would tempt a saint. The Witch-king has new allies who bring a terrible weapon --- a cursed disease that drives people into a murderous rage. If the disease is allowed to spread, the whole of the West will tear itself apart. Along with his reckless adventurer brothers, Kagen races against time to save more than the old empire. If he fails, the world will be drenched in a tsunami of bloodshed and horror.

Kagen Vale is the trusted and feared captain of the palace guard, charged with protection of the royal children of the Silver Empire. But one night, Kagen is drugged and the entire imperial family is killed, leaving the empire in ruins. Haunted and broken, Kagen is abandoned by his gods and damned forever. He becomes a wanderer, trying to take down as many of his enemies as possible while plotting to assassinate the usurper, the deadly Witch-king of Hakkia. While all around him, magic --- long banished from the world --- returns in strange and terrifying ways. To exact his vengeance, Kagen must venture into strange lands, battle bizarre and terrifying creatures, and gather allies for a suicide mission into the heart of the Witch-king’s empire.

Tattoo-artist Patty Cakes has her dead daughter’s face tattooed on the back of her hand. Day by day it begins to fade, taking with it all of Patty’s memories of her daughter. All she’s left with is the certain knowledge that she has forgotten her lost child. The awareness of that loss is tearing her apart. Monk Addison is a private investigator whose skin is covered with the tattooed faces of murder victims. He is a predator who hunts for killers, and the ghosts of all of those dead people haunt his life. Some of those faces have begun to fade, too, destroying the very souls of the dead. All through the town of Pine Deep, people are having their most precious memories stolen.

Rain Thomas is a young woman trying to rebuild her life after years of drug addiction and abuse. Ten years ago, at age 16, she gave up her baby after the father, her first love, died in Iraq. Now, three years clean and on the way to a job interview, Rain borrows a pair of reading glasses from an old lady on a Brooklyn train. The lenses are cracked, and through the crack she catches a glimpse of a little boy running and screaming. The boy looks so much like Rain’s dead lover --- like their son must look now. But how does a recovering junkie fight supernatural monsters? And how far will one woman go to save her lost son?