"Don't you dare pretend that you are some small, fragile, pathetic little girl. I can feel that viscious mind working through the stone."
 
For 468 years, the races of Ethake’s realm have lived silently among humans, hidden from their knowledge. The Royal House of Ethake has maintained peace between magical and underworldly creatures, and for the past two centuries, the Sapphirum—the highest family of the Sapphire race—has ruled over all.
At the heart of the city of Cyanfell stands the Castle of Plains, home to the royal bloodline and their armies since the earliest recorded lore. Within the Castle’s center lies the Sanctuary, where all magic is bound and unleashed.
Princess Ayla is in her 19th year, and in Ethake, that means one thing—this is the year she will be marked by her magic. But when the ceremony at the Sanctuary goes horrifically wrong, Ayla begins to suspect it’s connected to the shadowed figure that cornered her in the forest the night before. The creature whispered of an unstoppable darkness rising to claim the throne and the devastating death that would follow.
Ordered by her father to stay away from the Sanctuary’s investigation, Ayla defies him and launches her own search for answers. With her closest friends—and two devastatingly attractive men by her side—she begins to uncover secrets that were meant to stay buried. Haco, a deadly warrior with a mysterious past, and Cathan, the brooding protector whose intensity sets her skin on fire, both pull her in ways she can’t ignore. Torn between them, Ayla must master her magic before it consumes her.
As the fates foretold grow truer each day, and everything they thought they knew about magic unravels, Ayla and her band of magical mischiefs must confront the darkness threatening to change Ethake forever. But can Ayla survive the darkness within herself—the darkness that calls to her?