Leigh Bardugo

Orphaned by the Border Wars, Alina Starkov is taken from obscurity and her only friend, Mal, to become the protegé of the mysterious Darkling, who trains her to join the magical elite in the belief that she is the Sun Summoner, who can destroy the monsters of the Fold.

Soldier. Summoner. Saint. The nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army. The Darkling rules from his shadow throne while a weakened Alina Starkov recovers from their battle under the dubious protection of the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Now her hopes lie with the magic of a long-vanished ancient creature and the chance that an outlaw prince still survives. As...

As Fjerda's massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm to win this fight, and Zoya Nazyalensky must embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs, meanwhile Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital.

A prequel to the "Grisha Trilogy" takes the reader into Ravka's mysterious past, when Grisha lived as fugitives and the Darkling took his first steps on the path to power.