Azora's tracker seer sense is a death sentence, but she has no choice but to use it to provide for her family. When Azora's brother Lowan died, she paid a mage to store his essence in a stone bird. The song it plays often soothes her grief-stricken mother, but one night, thieves steal the bird. Azora will do anything to get it back, even confront Death himself. Alcaius is the son of Death. He does his best to silence his inner monster by switching the names he's supposed to claim. He loathes his desire to reap and the thrill it brings him, so he tries to claim souls he believes deserve to die. When his actions are discovered by the fate determiners, it sends him down a forced path with the seer tracker woman he was ordered to kill but couldn't.