I was raised in the dark, sharpened into a weapon, and sent into the mortal world to secure my coven's future. The Southern Kingdom holds secrets, and I will uncover them. But it holds my past—Cage, the man who slaughtered my mother, now stands as the King's most trusted mage. Stronger. Colder. Alive. She was supposed to be dead. A ghost from an old life. But Millicent walks these halls, her power coiled like a snake beneath her skin. She is everything I was warned about—ruthless, dangerous, a disciple of a monster. Yet the North stirs. Something ancient is waking in its shadows. The land rots beneath their touch, and the dead do not stay buried. Whispers of unnatural creatures and the undead spread like wildfire. Whatever they are building, it is beyond magic—it is beyond war. We are enemies. But something darker stirs beneath our feet, a threat neither of us can face alone. The past is a noose tightening around us, dragging old truths to the surface. I should kill him. I should destroy her. But if we do, we may not survive. The North is coming. Contains mature content. A complete list of content warnings can be found on the author's website.