On a mission from the tyrant king, Celene Sardothien, the greatest female assassin in the kingdom of Adarlan, travels to a continent where magic still survives, rather than being extinguished as it was in her native Erilea. Celene has no intention of fulfilling the king's criminal plans. She seeks a meeting with Maeve, the queen of the Fae, for the queen is the only one who can tell her about the mysterious Wyrd Keys, created by a race of demons to take over the world. But meeting the queen won't solve the mystery; Celene must solve it herself, and to do so, she must learn to control magic...