As a necromancer, Benoni has plenty of experience with raising the dead, wrangling angry ghosts, and hiding his powers—but he has no experience when it comes to love.

As the youngest child of two deeply dysfunctional parents, Benoni learned how to make himself invisible. This became useful when he developed the reviled and illegal gift of necromancy.

Now, he's haunted by a trio of unruly orcs, who constantly pester him about taking over the world, along with the ghost of his murdered brother, who, incidentally, is scared of other ghosts.

And during the ritual that allowed his brother to communicate, Benoni accidentally infects himself with a deadly necromantic rot.

His salvation appears in the form of the Dragon Emperor Julong. As a shapeshifting dragon, Julong can eat most of his problems, but he doesn't know what to do about the army of angry ghosts running amok in his palace. In exchange for a cure for the rot, Julong commands Benoni to uncover who summoned the ghosts. The spiritual plague needs to be kept secret, and Benoni needs authority in the palace—a pretend betrothal covers both.

In Julong's kingdom, necromancers are revered and same-sex relationships are normalized, so Benoni finds acceptance for the first time in his life. But even a fake engagement contract draws Benoni into political intrigue and assassination attempts. The captivating, powerful, and handsome Julong serves as Benoni's protector and rock. But as Benoni cajoles the undead to help him, everyone keeps warning Benoni about an imperial curse, and Julong may have more to do with the ghosts than he's led Benoni to believe. For a necromancer with only the dead as friends, no one living can be trusted—especially not a sexy dragon shapeshifter with literal ghosts in his closet.