The greatest magic lies in a listening heart.

The future Keeper of the palace’s libraries, Aeveli Erel is surrounded by people who only see her as such. Her aunt praises her knowledge, councillors seek her opinions, and marriage proposals pile at her desk. Yet all Aeveli wants is a quiet life among libraries, where she feels most understood and can adventure the world from the safety of her books.

But when a shipwreck kills the king and crown prince, her world becomes anything but safe. To avoid a foreign marriage arranged by her now-hostile aunt, Aeveli gives up her rank to serve as a palace maid until she can start a new life elsewhere.

Scorned by those who used to adore her, she struggles through her own grief, servitude under her spiteful cousin, and most of all, mysteries, including a man who hands her a needleless compass, a dashing guard captain whose compassion seems too good to be true, and lurking shadows she senses to be watching her in palace hallways. As she navigates through everything, Aeveli learns that not all things—and people—are as they seem…

And that a listening heart may hold the answers to it all.