Synopsis

The world is split in two. Starside is the realm of immortals and magic, paradise for the descendants of gods. Stormside is where mortals scrape for whatever power trickles through. Every fifty years, the gates open and fifty challengers are permitted to cross into Starside on a deadly quest—seeking healing, wealth, or longer life. Everyone has their reasons.

Aris has only one: vengeance. A goddess destroyed her village and killed her family when she was a child. She doesn't want the gods' magic. She wants the goddess dead.

To get there, she must first survive the Culling—the king's brutal competition to select his fifty challengers. An orphaned blacksmith's apprentice with no noble house behind her, Aris shouldn't stand a chance. But when she claims a great sword—one of the rare, power-imbued blades that cannot be bought or inherited—she becomes something far more dangerous than an underdog. She becomes a target.

And inside Starside, the threats multiply: ancient creatures, magic-wielding beasts, bloodthirsty immortals, and something new rising from the ground at night that has even the gods afraid. With enemies on every side and a secret tied to her family's death threatening to surface, the one person Aris can't afford to trust may be the only one who can keep her alive.