Rakel is a princess who should have been queen. Instead, as a despised magic user she has spent most of her life exiled on a barren mountain, alone in her ice-castle. But her empty life is shattered when an army of magic users invades her home country, bringing cruelty and darkness in their wake. Rakel refuses to watch as the people who've scorned her are attacked, imprisoned, and even killed by the invading army. Swallowing her fear, she joins forces with her jailers and uses her magic in a way she never anticipated: on the battlefield. But one of the invading colonels is different. When enemy Colonel Farrin Graydim meets Rakel, he is immediately intrigued by her. Her harsh rejection of an offer to join their cause only deepens his interest. He admires her unflinching strength, but his bloody past makes him utterly unworthy to stand beside the purity of her ice and snow. Can Rakel defeat the invasion and free not only her people, but Farrin as well? For if her magic cannot defend her homeland, all is lost.