Elias and Laia are running for their lives. Laia is determined to break into Kauf - the Empire's most secure and dangrous prison - to save her brother. But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most hearbreaking of all, Helene - Elias's former friend and the Empire's newest Blood Shrike.