October "Toby" Daye is a changeling, the daughter of Amandine of the fae and a mortal man.Like her mother, she is gifted in blood magic, able to read what has happened to a person through a mere taste of blood.Toby is the only changeling who has earned knighthood, and she re-earns that position every day, undertaking assignments for her liege, Sylvester, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills. Now Sylvester has asked her to go to the County of Tamed Lightning - otherwise known as Fremont, California - to make sure that all is well with his niece, Countess January O'Leary, whom he has not been able to contact.It seems like a simple enough assignment - but when dealing with the realm of Faerie nothing is ever as simple as it seems.Toby soon discovers that someone has begun murdering people close to January, whose domain is a buffer between Sylvester's realm and a scheming rival duchy.If Toby can't find the killer soon, she may well become the next victim.