Death Marked

Ileni was stripped of her magic at seventeen and sent to live among the assassins in their hidden caves. There, she taught them to use magic, and she fell for one of them. Along the way she learned that the story she had been raised on was false. Now she wants to find out what is real, so she slips into the Imperial Academy of Sorcery. The Empire is everything she has been taught to hate: hungry for power, tightly controlled, and quick to use violence. Yet inside the Academy she also finds friends and a sense of belonging, and she no longer knows where her loyalties lie. This is the sequel to Death Sworn, and it follows Ileni as she tries to undermine the Empire from within, only to discover that the enemy may be the only home she has. Her feelings for the assassins' new master pull her in a dangerous direction. He is separated from her by borders and secrets, and what connects them could save her or destroy her. At the Academy, the sorceress Karyn and the charming Evin are both hiding something. The Empire's magic is drawn from the dying, and using it means accepting a terrible evil, a temptation Ileni finds hard to resist even though she has no power of her own.