Stars rain from the sky. They shatter the earth, and their ichor fills her wounds. Mire. The sacred substance which either kills or transforms any living thing it touches. That which remakes the world. 

All eighteen-year-old Nikessa's ever wanted was to be a chryshunter--one of those whose work it is to seek out and dig up the magical fossilized remains of ancient mirefallen beasts. But when she's made an heir after the death of her cousin, she's forced to give up her dreams and travel to her birthplace--even as stars fall, new and horrible beasts roam the land, and tensions mount between nations. 

There she's to learn which seat of power will be hers--and to which five of the Mirelands' other heirs she'll be betrothed. But things at the capitol are not well, and some of those whom she once trusted prove traitorous. In the midst of a violent coup, Nik finds herself relying on powers she can barely fathom to fight an enemy she never imagined...all for a throne she doesn't even want. But if it means saving the lands and people she loves, she's more than ready to wear the crown.