The prologue of Radiant Shadows shows Devlin, the high court's Assassin, agreeing to shelter a spectral girl name Rae in faerie without his queen's knowledge.

It then skips forward about a century, to show the high queen, Sorcha, ordering Devlin to kill a baby halfling, the child of the Gabriel, along with a warning that it should "never enter faerie".

The novel then cuts to the present day, to Ani, the halfling whose life Devlin spared, as she tries to fit in with the other hounds, but cannot, due to her father's protectiveness and her mortal blood.

Devlin and Ani meet at the crows nest, where she drains his energy and he leaves with a taste of her blood.

In Faerie, meanwhile, Rae, who is a dreamwalker, enters Sorcha's dream and gives her a way to watch Seth in the mortal world.