"They had nothing better, nowhere else to go. They were loyal to her, and to the hope that perhaps she would find them a place in the world." After leaving Mehmed's side to carve out her own path to the throne of Wallachia, Lada Dracul finds herself without allies, assistance, or power to speak of, besides the loyalty of her men. When she finds that Mehmed has not been entirely honest or beneficial to her cause, Lada's rage encourages her to finally embrace the cruelty of her nature and to seek out the throne via any means necessary. Meanwhile, Radu helps Mehmed plot to overtake Constantinople, but the waters become muddied when Radu is sent into the city as a spy and begins to second-guess his own motives as well as the sultan's. Will Radu's love for his childhood friend be enough, or must he, too, find his own way?