Nikolai Lantsov is trying to be the king Ravka needs while concealing the darkness the Darkling left inside him. Zoya Nazyalensky, his most capable general, is navigating her own grief and the limits of what she is willing to sacrifice for her country. A new religious order is rising in Ravka, and something old and dangerous is stirring in the north. The first book of the King of Scars duology shifts focus from Alina's story to the political and personal aftermath of the Shadow and Bone trilogy.