What’s worse than being forced to marry your enemy? Falling in love with him and his monster.

Vivienne Grimrose has lived in self-imposed exile for the past ten years, ever since a deadly curse unleashed at Conclave killed her mother and grandmother and almost took her life as well. That attack severed her bond to her family’s Paragon and stripped her of her place in the line of succession. Since that night her powers have become erratic, and the mysterious bite marks left on her skin have never fully healed.

Now, as the next Conclave approaches, the Trine order Vivienne to attend, and no one disobeys the trio of inhuman mages and lives. Vivienne might have risked disobedience and death had she known that the Trine demand she marry Ronan Marwood, the cold, calculating heir of the House she holds responsible for the attack on her family.

Ronan Marwood has enough problems without adding a bride who loathes him to that list, not when he’s already dealing with his father’s increasingly volatile temper and paranoia. Worse still, Dante, House Marwood’s Paragon, struggles against something that is draining his power. The last thing Ronan and Dante can afford is a woman who ignites distrust, desire, and something even darker and more dangerous in both of them.

But when Ronan’s father is murdered at the wedding and House Grimrose appears to be responsible, Vivienne, Ronan, and Dante find themselves forced into a fragile alliance. To survive, they must untangle their growing feelings for each other as they race to solve the murder while avoiding traps set by someone who wants both their Houses destroyed.

And they need to succeed before the Halloween equinox when the bonds between the Houses and their Paragons can be strengthened or irreparably shattered. If they fail, they will lose more than their magic. They will lose their lives and each other.