Every thirteen years, beneath a blood moon, a bride is chosen to appease Alderfen’s curse. Liora Hale is the lamb the temple has chosen to lead to slaughter.

After her mother secretly bargains to spare Liora’s sister from the Choosing, Liora is left to bear the consequences. She is taken from the village and delivered to the fortress of a masked ruler known as the Unnamed King. The temple calls him Kael—a name used in place of the true one stolen from him.

Within his fortress walls, Liora learns the stories of a cruel, bloodthirsty king are another of the temple’s lies. Kael is not the curse’s master, but its prisoner—bound in iron and condemned to bleed for an Oath he never forged. He is haunted by the Remnants of the brides who came before her, and for one hundred years, he has searched for a way to break the curse that ensnares them all.

But Liora is not like the others. As the curse awakens and the fortress begins to hunger, she resists what consumed every bride before her. Where Alderfen sees a monster, Liora sees a man: wounded, imprisoned, and surviving despite everything stolen from him. And Kael begins to see her as more than the blood-price meant to keep her village alive. She is a healer. A defiant heart. And the woman who makes him want to live.

If Liora can survive until dawn, she may become the first bride to escape the curse. But surviving is no longer enough. Drawn to the king she was taught to fear, she must decide whether she is willing to risk everything and stand beside Kael against the god who claims them both.

Content Warning: Open-door intimacy (on page), written with euphemism and emotion. Adult. Graphic violence, ritual sacrifice, captivity, supernatural horror.