Bread, grass, and rose. Plain, common, and uselessly fragile. The girl Solin was, who loved Aurik from the moment she met him, died when she heard his description of her. A new woman rose from the ashes. Two years later, Solin returns to the city of Tibalt, where the high society of the Kingdom of Aivieria gathers during the autumn, winter, and spring seasons. Widowed and carrying the knowledge that she will likely discover the mark of her mate within a year, Solin intends to use her last few months of freedom to enjoy herself before she settles down. The escort she chooses for her new, excitingly wild life? King Aurik, the man who ended her old one. And he's certainly not enjoying himself (ask Solin if she cares). It's about time the world was reminded that roses have thorns.

My husband came home on our six-month anniversary...and brought his pregnant mistress to live with us.

My father blackmailed Heroux Alarie into marrying me, with the promise he would tell the Alarie where the woman he loved was at the end of three years. He called her name out every night after he fed and released with me. He made it clear he was with me only to find out where his beloved was. Despite this, living with Heroux was better than living with my family. Then things began to change and everything went to hell...and I had to escape, never thinking anyone would care. But he did.

Avelin has spent the last eight months paying for a crime she did not commit, married to a man who hates her. When the night of her twenty-fifth birthday finally comes, she spreads her wings for the first time and leaves the nightmare that is the court of Cairavelle behind. Asterion has spent the last eight months living a lie and extracting his pound of flesh from the wrong hide. When he finally realizes the extent of his mistakes, and what the price for them will be, he is prepared to fix what he broke or die trying. And he just might have to. Now, with the royal families and their courts in shambles, the hidden world of the Alatus is about to collapse in on itself. Avelin and Asterion must find a way to hold it all together, or risk losing everything and everyone they have ever loved.