The fighting season has been extended—with more blood matches than ever. In the depths of a sweltering summer, amid the waves of heat shimmering off golden sand, the games of Sunja’s Pit have assumed a new attitude. One of bitterness and betrayal. Of sweat and desperation. Corruption and cheating rule this season, and there’s no end in sight. And outside the arena, battles between bitter rival houses could completely reshape everything.Furious that her husband’s killer has gone unpunished, Zelia of Balgotha is visiting each house to place a bounty on the head of the man who so callously ruined her Goll, of the House of Ten. Meanwhile, in the shadowy corners of Sunja, the brutish enforcer known as Gurga is on a ruthless, one-man death march against the underworld powers that rule the streets, seeking his own revenge against those who killed the woman he secretly adored. And the gladiator Prajus—recently of the School of Nexus—realizes his new owner is every bit as bloodthirsty as he is . . . and willing to take as many heads as needed to win it all.From the sands a dragon is rising, while upon the cobblestone streets of Sunja, through a maze of the darkest lanes and back alleys, an ogre is hunting. This is blood sport at its finest. At its worst. At its longest.