The reward for a job well done, is another job. Or another challenge, anyway. Julius Heartstriker has defeated his mother, Bethesda, head of the Heartstriker Clan. Instead of killing her, as a Dragon would be expected to, he has simply defanged her, and proposed a power-sharing arrangement for a council, not an autarch, to rule his clan. This is rather unprecedented for dragons, where might makes right is a way of life. Julius can propose a council, but actually getting his siblings and his mother to go along with this plan is nothing but trouble. And given the large size of the Heartstrikers clan, bringing everyone back to the homestead to meet for this council is a recipe for intrigue…or disaster. Actually getting a bunch of dragons to come together to elect and cooperate in a council, however, isn’t even the biggest problem that Julius faces. Algonquin, the powerful river spirit that rules Detroit, has announced her intent and desire to wipe out all Dragons from the face of the Earth, everywhere, and might have the power to make that threat more than an idle one. Other Dragon clans are rather interested in Julius’ feat in defeating his mother, and scheme and plot as to what this means. The US Government is awfully interested in Julius,  the Heartstrikers, and his human mage partner Marci. Especially Marci, given her strange connection to Ghost, who in the two novels of the series has revealed himself to really be much more than Marci first thought.