In the icy citadel of Magnus the Merciless, every day is exactly the same.
By night, his mortifex court raise cups of gold at an enchanted feast. By dawn, they sail off to plunder the ships ferrying souls across the Cold Sea to the afterlife.
How hard could it be to rescue three prisoners from Magnus's clutches? Cas and Lo have the Wind-Witch to carry them beyond the Veil, along with the posh necromancer Nathan Ouvrard and a stabby mercenary who claims to work for the goddess of death. Cas even brought a magic staff to vanquish mortifexes. It looks promising - until an ill-advised riddle contest kicks off a run of bad luck that just keeps getting worse. Lo blames herself. She's caught in the Quickening, the end stage of a Shadow Soul, and forces greater than Magnus want her dead for good. With time running out, she and Cas must outfox the Fates themselves - or lose the people dearest to them both forever. Back in Galatia, the embittered mortifex Lucius finds himself being gaslighted by an eleven-year-old girl. Is Beatriu a Machiavellian prodigy who murdered her five siblings to gain the throne, or simply a tragic victim? The answer matters, since Lucius himself is the dowry in a splashy wedding between Beatriu and Enrigo Redvayne. Linking them all is the Grand Menotte, a weapon that blurs the line between life and death - and could tip both realms into utter chaos.
