Plagued by a wasting illness no doctor can name, Maria drifts through the halls of her crumbling manor after losing her husband, watched over by cautious maids and burdened by the quiet certainty that her time is nearly up. But when a dark figure begins to appear by her bedside, smoke and feathers, charm and cruelty, Maria begins to question what is real. The mysterious Nox haunts her dreams and waking moments alike, slipping through her mind like ink in water. He is beautiful. He is mysterious. And he knows things no living man should know. As her body weakens, Maria finds herself torn between the world of the living and the strange pull of the one Nox offers. Is he death? A figment of her fading mind? Or something far older, far darker? A story of grief, illness, desire, and the quiet, terrifying power of choosing your own end. Historical gothic meets haunting romance.