A spellbinding romantic fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast . . . After more than twenty years in hiding, Alexei is returning home. His kingdom is destroyed, his people dead or enslaved, and the magic that once protected them lost to all but memory. His only hope to provide sanctuary for the few who remain is the uncertain word of a traitor, a broken man who claims to know the hiding place of Erath's greatest treasure. To find it, Alexei will have to return to the place where Erath fell, and brave the shadowed halls of a castle that echoes with the ghosts of his past. Zara is a woman without a future-a treasure hunter, and a thief who hates to steal. Trapped by fate in an abandoned castle, she encounters a destiny she could never have predicted, and uncovers a treasure far greater than she could ever have imagined. When their paths collide, Alexei and Zara may both have a chance to atone for past mistakes . . . unless they kill each other first. Brought together by enemies both expected and unexpected, they will plumb the depths of an unimaginable betrayal and forge the foundations of a love they would risk anything to keep.