Though her family is tasked with defending their territory from invasive humans, Hoshi’s inability to phase like other shapeshifters leaves her outcast by her people and stifled by overprotective parents. Despite this, she hunts humans in secret, hoping to reclaim her community by saving their decaying realm. With more blades than companions, Hoshi relies on her Guardian, her instincts, and her inner fire to guide her.

 

But she doesn’t expect a nomadic camp of shapeshifters to set stakes in her territory, including Dren and the raffish hotshots who set out to restore the realms through controlled burns. While Dren is devoted to reviving the human-ravaged landscape through fire, he avoids conflict and added responsibility, or anything that may shape him into a product of his breeding. Though Dren is a quiet ember to Hoshi’s biting flare, they kindle a bond over shared commitment to the realms, their paths becoming more intricately wound with each encounter.

 

When humans start attacking Hoshi’s family, she and Dren meet two young women who challenge everything they’ve come to believe about their enemies. Yet a dark power behind the violence proves too overwhelming to face alone, and Hoshi and Dren must confront their painful pasts and trust each other to protect the realm. If they don’t, they risk losing the community they’ve built, including the love they’ve forged in fire.