One grieving man is forced to uphold an ancient bargain—by giving birth to a dragon. If only life were that simple.

Book 1 of the Ballot's Keep series.

After his lover is executed for the simple crime of being a commoner, Xeras, a young nobleman of Tirrin, turns his back on his life of privilege and flees into the wilderness.

Weighed down with grief, exhaustion and hunger, Xeras awakens from one confusing night in the forest with the ghostly voice of his lover in his head—and the embryo of a dragon implanted in his side.

When Xeras encounters Carly, the charming Duke of Ballot's Keep, he is far from ready to fall in love again. Still grieving, and angry about the predicament into which he's been forced, Xeras accepts an opportunity to go after the dragons who have been making life difficult for the people of the local towns.

But there is sinister magic behind the machinations of the dragons, magic that emanates from Xeras's distant home island of Tirrin. Magic that puts the lives of both Carly and the tiny infant dragon in danger. Xeras finds that he can't turn his back on either of them.

For their sake he must face down his own countrymen and somehow thwart the Tirrin mages' evil plans.