Spy, manipulator, traitor... He might be her only salvation.ady Seliah Phel canât escape feeling like sheâs one of those fairytale princesses awakened from a long slumberâexcept that her life is no romantic story and thereâs no happy ending in sight. Though she has her magic and sheâs been rescued from the depths of madness that consumed her since adolescence, Selly finds that the years she lost arenât so easily recovered. Everyone treats her like the child they remember. To prove somethingâperhaps only to herselfâsheâs recklessly volunteered to stave off a host of monsters with only the enigmatically alluring, cuttingly sarcastic, and probably deceitful wizard Jadren El-Adrel for company.
Jadren isnât the heroic type. In fact, heâs not much of anything. Relentlessly groomed into a shadow of a man by his sadistic mother, heâs the perfect spy and tool, with no real will of his own. When heâs stranded in the wilderness with Seliah Phel, he figures the outcome is immaterial. Live or die, itâs all the same to him. But Seliah is a different story and she isnât like anyone else. Though he reminds himself sheâs basically a child in a womanâs body, he finds it increasingly difficult to resist her artless charms and relentless curiosity.
As their predicament goes from dire to disastrous, Jadren realizes his many failures have jeopardized Sellyâs future, perhaps her very life. Far from home and trapped without resources, Selly has only Jadren to rely uponâthe one person she canât possibly trust. There seems no possibility of rescue from their friends and family back home at House Phel, so Jadren and Selly must work together to survive... if they can.