Seventeen brides ran from the heavy iron gates of Elysian, terrified of the cursed, metal-masked Prince Isaac. He expected his eighteenth arranged bride to do exactly the same. He was entirely unprepared for Vesperia Draconia-Noctis. Armed with a heavy volume of The Phantom of the Opera, an encyclopedic knowledge of anatomy, and the quiet, unyielding strength of a dragon, Vesperia is not a fragile aristocrat seeking a crown. She does not see a monster when she looks at Isaac; she sees a brilliant, broken man who has been forced into the dark by a cruel court and a vain younger brother. As Vesperia dismantles Isaac's defenses with her gentle intellect and fierce loyalty, Isaac realizes he has finally found something he is terrified to lose. But to be the king she believes him to be-and the man she is slowly falling for-Isaac must stop hiding behind his armor and fight for the light she brings into his world.