Alina Starkov doesn't expect much from life. Orphaned by the Border
Wars, the one thing she could rely on was her best friend and fellow
refugee, Mal. And lately not even that seems certain. Drafted into the
army of their war-torn homeland, they're sent on a dangerous mission
into the Fold, a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters who
feast on human flesh.
When their convoy is attacked, all seems lost until Alina reveals a
dormant power that not even she knew existed. Ripped from everything she
knows, she is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member
of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. He
believes she is the answer the people have been waiting for: the one
person with the power to destroy the Fold.
Swept up in a world of luxury and illusion, envied as the Darkling's
favorite, Alina struggles to fit into her new life without Mal by her
side. But as the threat to the kingdom mounts, Alina uncovers a secret
that sets her on a collision course with the most powerful forces in the
kingdom. Now only her past can save her...and only she can save the
future.