The Law of Haelen is absolute. Bind your soul by the twenty-first solstice or be surrendered to the Veythar—shadow-wrought reapers who feast on the essence of the unbound.
Kaelia Vaser has watched too many people choose safe, loveless bonds just to survive. The High Court calls it protection. She calls it surrender. When her solstice arrives, she vows she will not trade her heart for a signature on a ledger.
But as her solstice looms, Kaelia’s soul awakens and it does not reach for a mortal suitor. It screams for the one being she was taught to fear.
Talon Veyr is Master of the Veythar, a lethal bridge between realms and the very reaper meant to claim her if she fails. He is power, shadow and ruin, and the one being her soul recognizes as its equal.
When their attraction ignites a truth buried beneath centuries of lies, Kaelia is forced to choose: bind herself to safety and live half a life, or step into Umbral at Talon’s side and risk shattering the fragile peace between their worlds.
