Annabelle is the princess of Dunea, and that is all she has come to expect from her future. After the tragic death of her mother, Annabelle was raised in hiding—safe from the rebels who threaten from the North and the growing unrest in the kingdom as a decades-long conflict drags on. 

After rebels from the North murdered the beloved queen Ilenna, a young Annabelle was sent away from court to live under the protection of the Wallace family of Rosewood province. Safely tucked away at the remote coastal manor, under the warm and watchful guardianship of Lord Roger Wallace, Annabelle has spent the years of her youth in the sun—the expectations of the future no more than a storm cloud over a faraway horizon. But when Lord Roger dies unexpectedly, Annabelle is shoved into the glittering world of the royal court and into an arranged marriage that the king believes will save the future of Dunea.

Hoping to make the best of her situation, Annabelle attempts to befriend the handsome but taciturn Prince Mica. After all, if they are to be trapped together, why not carve out something like a good and happy life? But sinister truths are lurking in the shadows of a Dunea that Annabelle has never known. In one night, the aftershocks of a buried past will crack the pretty surface of Annabelle’s world, stripping it of everything Annabelle thought she knew and forcing her to choose between her future and her freedom.

As Annabelle runs from her enemies, she will have to rely on friends, both new and old—and an unknown power rising from within her own self—to survive.