When Sergeant Thane asked his best friend and second in command, to go riding, he had no idea how much his life would change. Whisked away by his horse to a forest that shouldn't exist, he hears a cry for help. Answering the plea, Thane releases a phoenix-Eraq-from his centuries long imprisonment. Eraq's first act of freedom is to claim Thane as his own. But the phoenix is more than he appears. A mage-shifter, Eraq sets his sights on the man who answered his call for help. Thane returns the interest despite learning that his act of liberation has set in motion events that will change the world. When he learns his relationship with Eraq places him at the center of events beyond his understanding, Thane refuses to abandon the man he's come to love. Even as it hurtles him toward certain death.