After ten long years of peace, the Empress of the Star Continent is restless. Determined to unite her world under one crown, Thorn Holdfast casts her gaze further afield, to the Allied Worlds, as she strives to create the greatest Empire ever seen. Her chosen successor, Kyra Holdfast, views the Empress as a paragon of virtue, and loves her more than she loves her own mother. All that will change when she comes to realise the full extent of Thorn’s ambitions. Kyra’s twin brother Cael no longer feels his life is his own to control. Moved constantly around the Star Continent by order of the Empress, his sole consolations are the worlds he has been creating with the Sextant. Little does he know how dangerous his new obsession will become. As the Holdfast twins reach adulthood, they must face up to the secrets that have warped their lives, and their deepest desires…