Pirates are tearing Mersey's seaside city apart like wolves.
A fifty-year-old treaty lies in tatters, and Mersey wants nothing more than to live her life at sea, to make those pirates pay and keep her people safe, but a promise to her beloved grandmother ties Mersey to the forests and a future that doesn't feel like her own. Afraid she'll never get to be captain if she stays, Mersey sets out to free her city - and herself - from the hounds of the Heartless King.
When a reckless plan fails, Mersey finds herself caught up in the world's most notorious pirate crew, and the arms of its cold-blooded first mate. These pirates are determined to take Mersey's city for themselves, leaving her caught in the beginnings of a war; one she knows will have disastrous consequences for the people she loves, but just might be the thing to set her free.
Amid lies, betrayal, and a blossoming love for someone she is supposed to want dead, Mersey finds herself torn between two lives, each as steeped in red as the other.