Prince of nothing and nowhere… After years of living a double life as a wastrel and a cad, Prince Vaniell of Garimore has walked away from his title, his position, and his life of privilege. His only remaining ambition is to save the Five Thrones from annihilation, by bringing an end to the reign of a power hungry king.

Driven by guilt and the grim specter of failure, Vaniell must travel far beyond the borders of his own lands to the coastal kingdom of Iria, where he hopes to find the elusive weapon he needs. What he finds instead is a tantalizingly beautiful mystery, one he can neither dismiss nor ignore.

Kiss him or kill him? Karreya has spent the last ten years behind the impenetrable walls of the Enclave—the harsh, unforgiving school for imperial assassins. But they trained her better than they knew, and now she is free, with only one mission in mind—to find the father who abandoned her for a new life in Abreia.

Lost in an unfamiliar world, she collides—literally—with the most beautiful, most infuriating man she has ever met. She ought to just kill him, but his smile is as deadly as his magic, and somewhere beneath his razor-edged charm is a heart as guarded as her own.

Their meeting seems wrought by fate, but for Vaniell and Karreya, fate is a double edged sword. Their only hope is to find a way to turn that blade on their enemies… before it divides the two of them forever.