A MONSTER FORGED BY THE GODS TO KILL HER. A PRINCESS WHO ISN'T AFRAID TO DIE. DESIRE WAS NEVER PART OF THE PROPHERCY... AND IT WILL DESTROY THEM BOTH. Princess Lyra Meridian would do anything to be free, even if it promised death. The sacrificial rite of Ascension is her only chance to escape. A ruthless offering to estranged gods where mortals either die or rise as their soldiers. She expected to die. Instead, when she leaped into the cursed ocean... It recognised her and something ancient awakened. Now monsters crawl from the Hells to hunt her and her kingdoms nightmare, The Commander of Death, is the first to find her. Forced into a blood bargain, Lyra is his prisoner. But the Commander has motives far darker than she realised, and none of them involve letting her go. As monsters close in and prophecy coils tighter around her throat, Lyra must decide whether the Commander is her captor, her protector... Or the temptation that will damn them both.