Aus

King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I'm called his precious. His favored. I'm the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don't leave the confines of the palace, I'm safe. Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck.

Trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

The Manipulator. I can manipulate the emotions of anyone who lets me. I will make you hurt, make you cry, make you laugh and sigh. But my words don't affect him. Especially not when I plead for him to leave. He's always there, watching and waiting. And I can never look away. Not when I want him to come closer. The Shadow. I didn't mean to fall in love. But now that I have, I can't stay away. I'm mesmerized by her smile, by her eyes, and the way she moves. I'll keep watching and waiting. Until I can make her mine. And once she is, I'll never let her go.

Skadi first met her husband-to-be with blades in hand on the opposite side of a battle. She lost, and he claimed his prize. To her horror, the king of the shadow elven agrees to marry her off to Jonas, a prince in the fae realms, as a way to unite their kingdoms against a shared enemy—the light elves. Skadi knows the marriage is nothing but a political game. Feelings won't come into play. Except her new husband makes not falling in love... challenging. When new threats arise, Skadi must decide either to love her enemy or keep him alive by betraying him to another.

My father called them messengers. He once told me they walked among us and that somewhere in this dark and godless city, there shined a faint sliver of hope. I had only to look for the signs. Well, I’ve spent my whole life investigating the inexplicable and all I've found are the unsettling vestiges of iniquity—the evidence of another world shrouded by the obscure. Purgatory to some, where depravity hides in shadows, and girls like me are little more than delicious bites of temptation. Others call it Nightshade.

Some moments are too painful to be endured. Some moments will break you if you let them. And yet, I can’t afford to let anything break me, because we have one chance to win this war. One chance to create a better life for everyone across the four kingdoms.

According to the FBI, I was considered a serial murderer after three kills. What do they call me after fifty-two? They call me the Silencer. One final bullet would have been all it took to stop me from taking another soul, and I would have been doing Meridian City a service by pulling that trigger. An angel crying for help stopped me, and that night, I took three lives for her. Then three turned into eight. Then eight turned into twenty. Twenty turned into twenty-one. Twenty-one turned into twenty-three.

Surrounded by enemies, I've never been further from my crown… Or closer to death. Amidst a betrayal we couldn't have anticipated, I'll do whatever it takes to find my way back to Lorian—before his fury lays waste to this continent. Alliances are being forged and broken, our enemies are unifying, and Regner’s spiders are closer than ever before. We have only one chance to prevent him from attaining god-like powers and enslaving every human, fae, and hybrid across the four kingdoms.

His enemies stole the woman who claimed his soul. They betrayed him out of greed and desire for the crown, but they won't die for that betrayal. No. They'll die for touching her. His heart belongs to a stunning little bird. He will never stop searching for her light across the skies. Not until the blood of his enemies spills at her feet, and his queen wears their bones around her neck.

I earned my reputation among magicians for a reason: one wrong move and you're dead. Killer, they called me, and killing is what I'm best at. Except her. The one I was supposed to take, the one I should have killed–I didn't. The cult that once controlled me wants her, and I'm not about to lose my new toy to them.