ESSENCEThey shun her as a beautiful monster, with her scarlet eyes and bone-white hair.But Essence singlehandedly sustains the Seventh Demesne walls, protecting the walled city from a gray-skinned, sharp-toothed race that seeks to invade.However, haunted by solitude, she seeks solace in letters from a young mage in a distant demesne.Something isn't right with him, though, or with his magic.And then he appears in her city, offering her the one thing she cannot resist: love. LYSIUMEnslaved by the guild, I ache for freedom. But the guildmaster magically imprisoned my soul inside amber, and I must be obedient to him, always, ever.He commands me to dance with my beautiful husband, a guild slave like I. He never smiles, and yet every night, he loves me inside moments marred by breathless and unfathomable melancholy.But every day, in the softest way, I escape: into clandestine moments in the park with another man I'm sure is--something I must never speak.Because this thing is so forbidden that, every night, a shadow enters my room and steals these moments with him from my life. MELYNDAA mediocre sorceress at best, Melynda nevertheless desperately tries to protect both Lysium and Essence.But she must contend with the guildmaster who possesses the souls of her children. She must fend off the master of mages who craves more power. All while resolving the mystery of her assassin lover, a man with an unknown past who's been concealing an unexplained power. THE ENEMYOutside the Seventh Demesne, a spirit-once the queen consort of mankind's greatest foe-strives to save humankind. But her lover, the enemy king, has spread his plans throughout the kingdom like a spider web.Now he watches. And waits. Then he acts. And the city... Content Warning: One character is tricked into sleeping with someone else without knowing who that person really is; an unformed baby is stolen from one character's womb.
