For years, the Nythors-beings of night and magic-have lived alongside humans under a hard-won peace. But a celestial event decades ago left their race dying, unable to bear children and teetering on the brink of extinction. When a sudden attack shatters the fragile peace, Helyra is offered as a bride to Aelorin, a Nythor prince of immense power, in a desperate bid to prevent another war. He is a warrior born of shadow, a man who commands the night itself. She is a human princess, thrust into a gilded cage. The prince expected a meek prisoner. A symbol of his people's decline to be tolerated and ignored. As he makes his disdain clear, hell-bent on breaking her spirit, Helyra does the one thing he never anticipated: she fights back. But in a court of ancient magic and darker secrets, he is about to make a devastating discovery. The wife he loathes may be the only key to his people's survival, or the catalyst for their ultimate doom.