Danger lurks in the unforgiving Northlands, and a sinister magic lurks in the shadows waiting for it's moment to strike. It's the worst place to be searching for something, even for an assassin with no loyalties and even fewer scruples ... In Othir, he was at the top of the food chain. An assassin beyond compare. A dark shadow in the night. But Caim left that life behind when he helped an empress claim her throne. And now his past has come calling again. Searching for the truth behind the murder and disappearance of his parents in the bitterly cold Northlands of his birth, Caim finds himself in a land in thrall to the Shadow.

A wielder of the darkest kinds of blood magic imaginable holds his homeland in their iron fist, crushing all opposition beneath their tyrannous boot. Haunted by temptations from the Other Side, by turns in control of his magic and at the mercy of the Shadow, Caim becomes mired in a war he does not want to fight. But there are some things a son of the Shadow cannot ignore, and some battles from which he can't run. If Caim is going to survive - and if he's to uncover the truth about his own magic and his parent's death - then he is going to have to fight. But will his strength and skill be enough? Can anyone resist the Shadow's Lure ...?