How best to punish treason? Make the traitors into immortal slaves!
Jarrin Lestrave comes to find out there are worse fates than death.
Wooing a new patron at the Emperor's Ball had been his only hope to keep from becoming destitute after being discarded by the Baroness.
Yet though he didn't push through entirely with his plans, despite finding the perfect subject, the next day he discovers he's been marked a traitor to the realm. His supposed crime - despoiling the virtue of the Emperor's daughter.
Innocent, yet having no idea how to prove it, he takes his immediate leave of the capital city. Even as he makes his escape, however, he finds out the Twelve have been sent after him. The Twelve - the Emperor's secret guard. They never fail.
Once they capture him, he finds out that unlike most traitors, they don't plan to kill him. A worse fate has been set aside for him. He is to lose his humanity and become enslaved to the empire for eternity.
So as Jarrin tries to learn to deal with his fate and somehow reconcile himself with it, life takes a twisted turn. For not only must he work for the empire that falsely accused him, now he also finds himself meeting his accuser face to face.
As he battles the rising hatred and frustrations caused by the invisible chains thrust upon him, slowly but surely, he begins to see that not all is as it seems. His fate tied to bigger and more mysterious circumstances which could mean the end of the world as he knows it.