Survive the training. Bind a demon. Claim the power.

La’an Dar has been exiled to the Azaronhai, an austere, isolated military academy where novices learn to enter the demon realm, hunt and trap a demon, and bind it to their sword with their blood. Success means becoming Djairon – the invincible weapons of the Azartan empire. Failure means death.

La'an searches for friends and allies, but his roommate Tizera, whose rebel family were slaughtered by imperial soldiers, despises him as an entitled noble, the embodiment of everything Tizera loathes. But the academy’s perilous training forces them together and soon hatred ignites into consuming desire. La’an’s feelings overwhelm him fast, but Tizera has no idea he's hiding a dangerous secret. With La'an's lies and Tizera's volatile grief, trust is nearly impossible. While their bond deepens, La’an is stalked through the academy’s shadowed halls by the Ragged King, a creature that seems able to break every rule he’s been taught about demons, something old and powerful that hates him for reasons he must understand before it’s too late.

To survive, La’an must decide: will he betray his empire, or will he betray his heart?