A once-wealthy family who lost everything. A mysterious marriage proposal. A single discovery that could change the known world forever, and the help of a boy who - honestly - would rather not. Gwendolyn Ashford-Hale grew up happily, feasting on ancient tales of dragons riders and old, forbidden magic. But when her father is mysteriously captured by the Royal Court just days before her thirteenth birthday, all of the wonder in her life disappears with him. It isn't until she finds herself the perpetrator of an unforgivable crime at age sixteen that she meets Avery Orebarrow - a brooding exile from the royal province of Thybia. With him, the world opens up before her, just as it begins to fall apart...

"It is your choice," he said, stepping so close to me that our lips were almost touching. "Either do what I say - or get another job." My heart stood still as I gazed up into his deep, dark, dangerous eyes... In a world where women's only role in life is to sit at home and look pretty, Lilly is determined to fight for her freedom. There's only one problem: a powerful man blocking her way.