Sabaa Tahir's Empire picks up exactly where Heir, the previous book in her Ember in Ashes series, left off: with the character S'rsha attached to the very monster she set out to destroy.

The novel poses a central question — when a child dies, who pays the price? — and situates that question within the established world of the Ember in Ashes universe, which Tahir has built across the series.

By continuing the narrative thread from Heir rather than resetting it, Empire keeps readers in the immediate aftermath of the earlier book's events. S'rsha's bind — chained to the monster she hunted — forms the premise from which the new story unfolds.

The title and its guiding question signal Tahir's focus on consequence and accountability: the death of a child, and the question of who bears the cost of that loss.