mommabearforlife
"She broke into the cathedral to assassinate the Syndicate's ruler-only to be tossed into a ruthless bride hunt with a bounty on her head. Now, the executioner who was supposed to kill her, the mafia prince who runs the game, the rogue mage burning the city, and the silent poisoner in the shadows aren't hunting her for the prize... they're ready to slaughter anyone who even breathes in her direction."
Five years after her family was slaughtered, alchemical infiltrator Valerie Cross breaks into the Black Iron Syndicate's cathedral to execute the man responsible. Instead of sweet revenge, she meets Nathan Sterling-the cold Executioner General whose iron grip seals her fate.
Rather than a quick death, Valerie is fitted with a cursed obsidian collar and cast into the Harrowing: a brutal, city-wide bride hunt through the rain-soaked alleys and flooded catacombs of Oakhaven Citadel. Marked women run. Ruthless lords hunt. Survival until dawn is the only law.
Except Valerie refuses to be prey.
Her defiance ignites the obsession of four lethal men: Nathan, the executioner whose iron discipline shatters for her; Jensen, the cunning heir pulling the tournament's strings; Dean, the exiled mage burning the city to ash; and Sam, the apothecary slipping her antidotes from the dark.
As the hunt turns into open warfare, Valerie's hunters become her shield-until the cursed collar snaps, awakening an ancient, dormant power that threatens to burn the entire empire to the ground.
She was caught. She was hunted. Now, she's taking the throne.