Add to that the fact that Yelena knows his secret, her fate is sealed. Although he’s grateful to her, magic is banned from Ixia and punishable by death. Once the Commander recovers, he banishes Yelena from Ixia, never to set foot in his territory again. Everyone thinks the Commander is beyond help, but Yelena uses her magic to help him recover, while at the same time uncovering a his deepest secret. Yelena and Valek escape the dungeons and free the orphans whom Mogkan was using for power, and then defeat Brazell and Mogkan with Irys’s help.

Irys slips into Yelena’s mind and tells her how to destroy Mogkan’s source of power. But Valek obviously follows, and once he’s discovered, both he and Yelena are thrown in the dungeons. Once he’s completely in their thrall, they compel him to travel to Brazell’s land, bringing Yelena along, while ordering Valek to stay behind. Brazell is also plotting against the King with Mogkan, another magician, and they gradually take control of the Commander’s mind, with the ultimate goal of taking over Ixia. But her past comes back to haunt her in the form of Brazell, who wants revenge, and a master magician named Irys who discovers that Yelena has magic and warns her to control it. Despite the occupational hazard, Yelena accepts, and begins her training in learning the intricacies of poisons under Valek, the head of the Commander’s intelligence network. After spending almost a year in a cell for killing her benefactor General Brazell’s son, Yelena is walking towards what she thinks is her death, when she is offered a devil’s bargain – to become Commander Ambrose’s (Ixia’s new ruler) food taster.

Poison study series in order