Two thieves want answers. Riyria is born. For more than a year, Royce Melborn has tried to forget Gwen DeLancy, the woman who saved him and his partner Hadrian Blackwater. Unable to stay away any longer, they return to Medford to a very different reception—she refuses to see them. Once more she is shielding them, this time from the powerful noble who abused her. But she doesn't know the rules Royce would break to see her safe.