THE SUMMERTIME Kingdom has fallen towards the Pale Queen, and it’s really Claire’s fault. The Winter Kingdom faces devastation, and it’s really her fault. Her mother is certainly dead. Everything is definitely her fault.

After the designated assassin for Queen Mab, Claire is now only a humiliated mortal, haunted by her own failures. Discontinued by her previous allies and stripped of her magic, Claire is normally banished to the Immortal Circus.

Instead of this once-vibrant show now stands an empty husk. Performers who should be tethered to it for eternity are departing, negating Winter’s last hang on the Dream. Someone is focusing on Winter’s power by weakening its agreements – actually Claire’s own. And it’s really not hard to think who’s behind it.

Power or no power, contract or no contract, Claire has an responsibility to uphold. And with the fate from the worlds dangling in the balance, she takes on the strike she understands will become her last: the Pale Queen.