To break their unwanted bonds to legendary beasts, three street rats reunite and set sail on a daring quest to crash a royal wedding and pull off the heist of the century in this debut young adult fantasy for fans of Six of Crows and Sabaa Tahir.

A cunning tailor
A thrill-seeking pirate
An unconventional assassin

Soha Khosrani knows how to make a deal.

Born and bred in Joot—a crowded port city teeming with gang lords, bureaucrats, and heiresses—Soha is an upstart tailor with an unhealthy appetite for risk who falls somewhere in between all of the above. On the cusp of the biggest deal in her career, Rostam, a fiery beast of legend, destroys Soha’s precious tailor shop. Awoken from a thousand-year banishment arranged by his siblings, Rostam has returned furious, vengeful, and bound to Soha through a ring she discovered in her childhood.

If that isn’t enough, Soha’s past then crashes onto her doorstep when her childhood nemesis and her assassin sister both return to Joot, bound to Rostam’s brother and sister. In order to break the dangerous bonds, the three former street rats and their monstrous counterparts must crash the royal wedding and steal the only object that might free them from one another. On their way, they confront the past that ties them all together, while also uncovering a history that could unravel an empire of carefully woven secrets.

All Soha knows is that being tied to a monster is not good for business, so she will do whatever it takes to return to her life of sin and sequins. Even if that means offering up an entire empire as collateral.