In the shadow-soaked streets of Victorian London, governess Eliza Clarke hides a power that could get her killed. Orphaned in a massacre she cannot remember, she has spent years concealing her forbidden shadow magic-until her twelve-year-old charge, Madge Windermere, awakens the rarest light magic the Empire has seen in centuries. When Madge is seized for the Imperial Tournament-a brutal crucible where gifted children are weaponized for the Crown-Eliza follows into the Empire's deadliest fortress. There she collides with Major David Thorne, the enigmatic Battle Mage whose gray eyes should mean nothing... except he claims to have known her as a child. He swears the boy who once bound his light to her shadows still lives beneath his Imperial uniform. But Thorne is also the man who serves the machine that breaks children. And when Eliza's unraveling power exposes her as the last Shadowbinder-a bloodline the Empire nearly erased-trusting him may be the most dangerous choice she can make. As Madge faces lethal trials and Eliza's shadows spiral beyond control, survival demands one impossible decision: remain hidden, or embrace a legacy that could shatter an Empire built on stolen magic. Because the Tournament doesn't just forge weapons-it consumes souls. Some bloodlines are worth dying for. Others are worth killing for. A gothic romantasy perfect for fans of dark Victorian fantasy, morally complex heroes, and magic that comes with a price.