In the frost-bitten kingdom of Aethelgard, the woods are a graveyard for the living. To the villagers, the Starfall Forest is home to death. To Aurelia, they are a sanctuary from a life of isolation. Aurelia has always been an outcast, accompanied only by Nymera, a silver fox with gold-spun eyes and secrets of her own. But when a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger-a man with piercing blue eyes and the warmth of a forbidden sun-ends in a clash of steel and magic, Aurelia's world is turned upside down. Literally. The world is rotting. Between the State Magicians seeking to build an army and the Vraxxos who turn humans into the Cursed, there is no room for a girl who radiates light. Carried deep into the heart of the eternal winter by a man who is as much a beast as he is a savior, Aurelia must face a terrifying truth: She isn't just a girl fleeing the dark. She is the light the Starfall Forest has been waiting for. And in a world of ice and shadows, the brightest lights are the ones most likely to be extinguished.