Lily Thompson's life shatters when her parents die in a mysterious accident, leaving her orphaned at twenty-two and shipped off to live with two estranged aunts in Blackwood Hollow—a fog-drenched town buried in pine forest where nothing is as it seems. *** "You're either very brave or very stupid." Ethan stepped out of the dark like he'd been carved from it. No shirt. Just dark jeans hanging low on his hips, bare feet silent on the needle-covered ground. Moonlight silvered the hard lines of his chest and the faint scars across one shoulder. His eyes glowed faintly gold. Lily's pulse kicked hard. "You were watching the house." "I was watching you." He stopped three feet away. Close enough that she could feel the heat rolling off him. "Your aunt's wards are old. Weak. They don't keep us out the way she thinks." "Us."

High Priest Zhenhai discovers his son Juan has lain with another man. In a ritual of blood and fury, he sacrifices Juan upon the altar—but not before pronouncing a terrible curse "You think love for that dog is worth more than the balance of the realm?" Juan's lips curved, not quite a smile. "I think the realm will survive without my blood on your altar. I am less certain it will survive the curse you are about to place upon every man who does as I have done." The high priest's eyes flared. Then Zhenhai spoke the words that would echo across centuries.