She was promised to the prince everyone feared.Seren Valora has spent her whole life behind palace walls, kept in the dark by a family that never tells her the full truth, then they announce her marriage to Riven D'Arcy the heir to the Black Crown, and the man everyone calls the Prince of Ruin.Nobles and commoners alike are afraid of him, Some say darkness follows wherever he goes, Others whisper that the rumors don't even cover what he really is, Seren braces herself for a monster. What she finds instead is a man guarding secrets just as dangerous as his reputation. Inside the Black Palace, she starts noticing things that don't add up like strange portraits, rooms that shouldn't exist, whispers about a power buried somewhere beneath the castle.Then the Black Crown reacts to her blood and suddenly her marriage stops looking like a peace treaty between two families, she was brought here for a reason.The deeper she digs into Riven's past, the more terrifying the truth gets because he isn't the only one hiding something, Her own family has been lying to her too. Now the kingdoms are sliding toward war, enemies are closing in from every side, and someone wants Seren dead before she finds out the truth, there's just one question she can't shake:If Riven really is the monster everyone claims then why is he the only one trying to keep her alive?