Aurelia wished on a lantern to be set free. She should have been more careful.

In two weeks, she will marry the kind merchant's son her whole village adores and settle into the quiet life everyone has planned for her. Then a stranger arrives with a warning, her mother vanishes, and the night she returns, hounds follow her home.

By dawn, Aurelia has crossed the Veil into a fae kingdom she has only ever seen in dreams. Nothing here is what she was told, least of all her own past. And someone has been waiting a very long time for her to come back.

The silver-eyed prince from those dreams is real. Rhaelan Thorne is guarded, infuriating, and the first person who refuses to make her choices for her. His shadows answer her light in ways neither of them can explain.

But the court smiles with too many teeth, and someone in the palace is watching her every move. To survive, Aurelia must decide what she is willing to give, and what she will never let anyone take.

For fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing: a lost heir, a dream-bound prince, and a slow burn worth the wait.