Is the challenge to blame for its revelation?

With Ruben still missing and no sign of their enemy's force, Donovan races to uncover the mysteries of blood magic while training the next generation in New Seeking. Away from the familiar halls of the Order, he learns from Annette to develop the skills to lie and secret his true self amongst the nobility and whatever spies may skulk in their midst.

Donovan encounters changed relationships, rediscovered and more complex than he ever wished, and he longs for Whitman's good humor, which is in short supply.

Whitman himself struggles to unearth and connect his own threads of insight through heartbreak and daunting challenge as he digs through layers and centuries of deception, historical propaganda, and indoctrination.

Throughout all, Ruben drowns in fear and danger, managing breaths of revelation and enlightenment that threaten to unravel everything he once understood to be true. Taught and taunted by the Smiling Man, whose knowledge appears to stretch for generations, he is determined to be of use to his friends when they come for him. Will they make it before his resolve trickles away?