Danger, trust, desire, love...only Astreiant's stars know the outcome. Nicolas Rathe and Philip Eslingen, the heroes who saved Astreiant's children mere months before, are back, drawn together from opposite sides of the law to investigate a series of murders whose impact stretches deep into Astreiant's underworld. Eslingen is now a professional knife working for a prominent crimelord while Nicolas Rathe is an Adjunct Point, sworn to uphold the city's laws. By rights, they should be wary foes, but instead they find themselves sharing an investigation as well as a bed as their search takes them into the heart of Point of Knives and at its center, the Court of Thirty-two Knives, the hub of Astreiant's underworld. They will need all the allies they can find to navigate the labyrinth of conflicts and alliances that stand between them and catching a killer before they strike again. A single misstep could be disaster, a single doubt, the end of all their hopes.