In the aftermath of the Battle of Varna, the Ottoman frontier seethes with unrest. Janissary officer Tahsin lives by simple rules: never stand out, never volunteer, and never trust a nobleman. But when he is assigned a diplomatic mission into the fractious Serbian Despotate, those rules begin to break.
His companions are as dangerous as the land itself: Cem, an ambitious Sipahi hungry for glory, and Koja, a masked warrior whose silent strength hides a violent past. Their task, to collect the boy-levy owed to the Sultan, turns into something far darker when Despot Đurađ Brankovic demands their help in hunting a creature that mutilates its victims and steals children from their beds.
What begins as a hunt for a wolf becomes a descent into the supernatural. The soldiers uncover alchemical horrors, fae legends made flesh, and a conspiracy reaching from the Serbian court to a rogue Cardinal who traffics in forbidden miracles. As illusions warp reality and loyalties splinter, Tahsin must choose between duty and conscience, and decide what kind of man he will become.