Princess Seraphina was raised to believe the stars choose your match, and the stars have always been silent for her. She stands in a ballroom of crystal and candlelight while a betrothed prince smiles and the court waits for a Marking that never comes, until a single poisoned blade ends the night in blood and a stranger with storm grey eyes pulls her back from the edge of death. He is Cassian, the last of the Void-touched, a people the Celestial gods erased from history, and his touch leaves a mark on her skin that the Star Court would burn her for. She can choose to hide it, to marry the prince, and to stay safe inside the empire's beautiful lies, or she can follow the thread in her chest into a war with gods who feed on worship and tolerate no rivals. Every choice she makes pulls her deeper into the truth the court has spent 3,000 years burying, and deeper into the arms of the only man who has ever seen her as she really is.
This is a romance built from ash and defiance, where destiny is a lie the powerful tell, and where the only bond worth keeping is a bond chosen freely. It is not a story of instant love. It is a story of a pair who start as strangers, become weapons for each other, and then become something no god can control. The world they walk through is beautiful and brutal, and their love has to be forged in it, not found in it.
Inside, you'll discover:
• The mark that appears on both their wrists and the bond it ignites
• The prophecy left in the ruins of a murdered civilization
• The gods' feeding system and the truth behind every Marking
• The temple, the ritual, and the choice between transformation and annihilation
• A crown forged from stars and embers and a love built in the dark
• The voice of the last Solano and the memory she carries
• The dawn after the war and the life they choose on the other side

Melissa Hartwell

Books