When Adrian the Brave, an arrogant con-artist posing as a knight, eats a mushroom he finds deep in the forest by his village, his life takes a turn for the worst.
Immediately after he eats it, he becomes addicted. In his search for more mushrooms, he finds a trapped rabbit. The rabbit, whom he nicknames "Lackwit," offers to lead Adrian to an enchanted part of the forest where the magical mushrooms thrive, in exchange for freedom.
Adrian soon discovers, however, that this forest is home to more than just mushrooms, and not all of the inhabitants are what they appear to be....
Cover illustration by Anthony Moravian. http://antmora.deviantart.com
The Dark Forest does not forgive. It swallows the strong, breaks the weak, and buries its secrets beneath roots older than empires.
Aconite was never meant to survive it. Mortal. Breakable. Reckless. Yet when she stumbles across a world carved of shadows and ruin, she refuses to bow. Her laughter rings where screams should echo, her defiance burns where others beg for mercy.
And Azazel, the fallen king who rules these depths, cannot look away.
Crowned in blood-shards and haunted by centuries of loss, Azazel is a husk of what he once was - until Aconite tears into his solitude with sharp teeth and sharper will. What begins as a clash between predator and prey twists into something far more dangerous: a bond that defies the forest itself.
But shadows whisper. Old betrayals stir. And both king and shifter will learn that surviving each other is only the beginning.