A millennium-spanning conspiracy unravels when a stunning youth raised in the woods disrupts the Emperor’s grand design. Ariel, forced to abandon him, makes a heartbreaking departure. Ten years pass, and the boy she left behind has become Emperor Cedric—a man hardened by bitterness, now leading an assault on her forest sanctuary. As flames consume the trees, he confronts her with a shocking ultimatum: “Ariel, you will marry me.” Though a grand sorceress of a thousand years, Ariel possesses no real magic, and her meticulously arranged existence is suddenly thrown into disarray. All her long-held plans must now be completely rethought.
