Outside the walls of the gate of the deep, death awaits a sacrifice, a boy-yet-to-be-king. As a heavy snowfall settles across the silence of an English countryside, Nicolas Bennett finds himself at home on Christmas Eve, struggling with the possibility of forever having lost his once-found-new friends, Benjamin, Adelaide, and Ranulf. Plagued by the private, painful reminder of his older brother, Jack, a miserable Nicolas trudges out into the winter night to fetch the family dog and-most unexpectedly within the stifling confines of a dark, wet burrow-finds his way back into the fantastical land of Telluric Grand. Unsure of himself and mistrusted by those around him, Nicolas discovers he's come back just as an invasion of war crows looms inevitably on the eastern horizon. In the midst of a desperate plan to mount a last-minute defense of the first kingdom, Nicolas, the wren and a once-dragon nightfall, steals himself to do the unthinkable. Nicolas dares to risk losing everyone and everything he's found again... and he dares to risk losing his own life.