before you leave

She was born to be obedient.
She became a killer instead.
In the divided city of Alythra carved by power in blood, secrets don't stay buried - they rise. Blood determines your worth. Powerless like Narla Young - or is she? - are expected to serve, kneel, and never question the Highborne who rule them. But Narla has been playing a dangerous game beneath the surface - one name at a time, she is erasing the men who destroyed her family.
Each murder is a message.
Each scar she hides is a vow: I will never be helpless again.
But when Apollo Calloway, the brutal highborne enforcer, is tasked with hunting the anonymous killer known only as The Blood darling, their worlds violently collide. Cold, controlled, and lethal, Apollo lives by one rule - loyalty to the regime. The killer keeps slipping through his fingers....until she walks straight into his castle wearing a dress made of defiance and eyes like strom clouds.
They don't know why they are drawn to one another like violence to silence. Fire to oxygen. Ruin to revenge.
But the closer Apollo gets to unmasking the blood darling, the closer he gets to falling for the one person he's sworn to destroy.
And Narla? She's about to find out what happens when the hunter turns his eyes on her....and realizes she's not just his enemy....she's everything he never saw coming.
As secrets unravel, and forbidden chemistry turns to obsession, Narla must decide if Apollo is just another enemy to destroy - or the only man who could burn the world down beside her.
Because in a kingdom built on lies, some truths kill.
And some hearts are meant to be broken.