Keep your head down. Don't draw attention. Above all, don't make yourself a target. Those are the rules seventeen-year-old Ailsa lives by. It's just part of being the daughter of the disgraced ex-king and living too close to his more-than-slightly paranoid successor.

The new king's insecurities and repressive policies drive most of the mages out of the kingdom—and with them the magic that her desert country urgently needs to survive.

Desperate, Ailsa sets out to study magic so she can help keep Far Terra green. But it's not as easy as just learning to use her own magic. She's going to need allies. She's going to need the very kind of political power that is forbidden to mages.

She must decide if she can trust her heart—and Far Terra's future—to the childhood friend who is also the new king's heir. Or she could choose to team up with the fascinating and cheerfully annoying fellow student of magic who, it turns out, has even higher political connections to the emperor himself.

It may take all three of them to bring Far Terra back from the brink.