HI, AND WELCOME TO SPOILER CITY.

DIMITRI ALEXEYEV (28), former Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo, is living in hiding with what remains of his court—his chief political advisor, his top general, his court physician, and his closest confidant, his spymaster VASILY (32). After losing the civil war he had been fighting against his own husband, ALEXEY BALAKIN (38), Dimitri feels as though he’s failed his people and his country, leaving them to be ruled by a monster—as Alexey is no longer an ordinary man. Reborn as an immortal, unbreakable being through his mastery of the Holy Science, this was what caused a rift between him and Dimitri, ultimately leading to the coup that saw Alexey on the throne and Dimitri deposed.

When Vasily hears whispers that Alexey is rebuilding his army—and no one knows to what end—he urges Dimitri to let him look into the situation in Novo-Svitsevo, and Dimitri reluctantly agrees. This is the most Dimitri has allowed anyone in his court to do in a year, weighed down as he is by trauma and depression, and his court is pleased to finally be making progress in retaking Novo-Svitsevo.

News out of Novo-Svitsevo is terrible—famine and poverty are rampant in the war-torn country while the newly crowned Tzar looks to expand his control. Vasily knows he needs to infiltrate Alexey’s court to determine what he’s planning, but the problem is figuring out how.

Vasily learns of a call that Alexey has made for those born to the old priestly line of Novo-Svitsevo to come to the capital to pray with him. Vasily proposes that he serve as the court’s spy—as his identity as Dimitri’s spymaster was closely guarded during his reign, so Alexey wouldn’t recognize him under a stolen identity. The court is suspicious of Alexey’s intentions but agree that Vasily should take the risk of traveling to Novo-Svitsevo.

Dimitri and Vasily bind themselves together with the help of an angel, allowing them to communicate in their dreams while Vasily is in Novo-Svitsevo. However, the cost is descending into the Holy Science that they condemned Alexey for using—but they do it in the name of saving their country.

While Dimitri and the rest of the court set out to find a way to kill Alexey once and for all, knowing his new, immortal body proved nearly invulnerable during the war, Vasily travels to the capital. He finds Alexey ruling the court with the help of his chief ally MOROZOV, who is attempting to convert the remaining lords in Novo-Svitsevo firmly to Alexey’s cause by imprisoning and torturing them, which Alexey condones. Vasily also learns that Alexey has taken a new lover— IVAN (22), Dimitri’s illegitimate half-brother—who he is planning to legitimize and marry to solidify his control over the faction of Dimitri’s supporters still left at court.

Vasily begins the process of extracting information from Alexey and relays to Dimitri through their dreams that Alexey is experimenting on humans, turning them into demons that he calls zemonyii. Vasily watches Alexey turn Morozov into a zemonyii and determines that Alexey is plotting to open a rift between their world and the world of demons, using these zemonyii as the generals of a heretical army to protect Novo-Svitsevo from its enemies.

Horrified, Dimitri and the court risk their souls by communicating with demons to determine how to stop Alexey. They learn that Dimitri can do so by using the Name of God, which Dimitri barters with an angel to obtain—and receives, in the form of the Name being inscribed on the bone of his forearm. Armed with the way to kill Alexey and the means to do it, Dimitri instructs Vasily to convince Alexey that Vasily should search for and arrest Dimitri, claiming speedy success as the result of supposed “help” from God.  

Alexey agrees, and promises Vasily that on his return, Alexey will turn him into a zemonyii as the reward for his service to the crown. Vasily retrieves Dimitri and the court in a mock arrest and presents them to Alexey. Dimitri pretends to be repentant, and Alexey forgives him for his disobedience. That night, Dimitri goes to Alexey under the guise of wanting to renew their physical relationship and tries to kill Alexey—but Alexey kills Dimitri first.  

Vasily is distraught when his mental connection with Dimitri is severed, knowing that it means Dimitri is dead. About to leave to flee Novo-Svitsevo, he realizes he would never forgive himself if he did not try to finish the mission. Vasily sneaks to where Alexey has left Dimitri’s body and cuts the name of God out from where it was written on the bone of his forearm. Along the way, Dimitri refuses to enter heaven and uses his previous mental connection to Vasily as a way to temporary trap his soul in Vasily’s body.

The next morning, Vasily is summoned to what is supposed to be his public transformation. Instead, Vasily stabs Alexey with the shard of Dimitri’s bone. The demon Morozov snatches up Alexey’s dead body and flees. In the chaos, Vasily frees the rest of the court from the dungeons.

Realizing they need to find a way to put Dimitri’s soul back in his body, the court searches through Alexey’s study, where they find instructions for doing so among his many books on the Holy Science—but the spell requires a blood sacrifice. They kidnap Ivan, and Vasily kills him, summoning the angel of death, who restores Dimitri to life. Dimitri then reclaims the throne of Novo-Svitsevo, and reestablishes his rule, Vasily and the court by his side.