Some women are born to power. Others must seize it with both hands.

In the floating brothels of Canton, Shi Yang is a ghost, a pretty face who listens while powerful men talk. They speak of trade routes, naval patrols, and weaknesses. They never notice she is listening. That is their first, and last, mistake.

When the formidable pirate lord Zheng Yi storms her world, he seeks a conquest. Instead, he finds his match. She counters his offer of marriage with a demand that will upend their world: an equal partnership in the command of an empire.

From the treacherous waters of the South China Sea, they build a pirate confederation that challenges emperors and foreign powers. But as their influence grows, so do the threats. Treacherous rivals, shifting alliances, and the simmering ambitions of the very man who shares her bed threaten to tear their kingdom apart. Can a woman who was once property truly rule an empire of men, or will the very sea she conquered be the thing that swallows her whole?