It’s the day of the Hunt, and I've always known it would decide my future. The man who brings the largest stag to the feet of my father will win my hand in marriage. My oldest friend and the greatest hunter in Aetherus is favored to win, and we've planned our entire lives together.

That is, until the Reaper, the monster who haunts the trees, arrives with the largest stag in the forest and claims me as his own

I’m a 400-year-old witch covered in tattoos—the source of my magic.

But I’ve been hiding them for years, trying to escape my past. It's any other night in my apothecary when the Feral King—a beast who eats the local villagers for sport—kidnaps me and demands my help.

When I deny him, he tries to torture me into compliance, but pain and I are long-acquainted friends, and I will never be the one who falls.