“This gritty narrative brings a little-known period in history to life. . . . Dramatic and intense.” —Kirkus Reviews


Wales, 1109. Three years ago, a warband raided Elen’s home, killing both her elder and baby sister. Elen survived sexual assault, and when she saw a chance to live, she took it. She healed the wound of the war band’s leader, Owain, and spun a lie: Owain ap Cadwgan, son of the king of Powys, cannot be killed, not by blade nor blow nor poison. He has the protection of Saint Elen, so long as he keeps her namesake near him and safe from harm.

Since then, Elen has had food, clothes, and a bed that she shares with the man who brought that warband to her door. But then Owain abducts Nest, the wife of a Norman lord, and her three children. War breaks out, and as her careful lies threaten to unravel, Elen looks to Nest and begins to imagine a different life—if she can decide, once and for all, where her loyalties lie. J. Anderson Coats’s evocative prose immerses the reader in a dark, affirming tale of power and survival.