The Bridge Kingdom meets The Cruel Prince in this first book of a new dark fantasy trilogy, in which a merrow princess is betrothed to a fae prince to secure a foothold in the fae court for the coming war but falls for her husband-to-be’s female guard and must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice in the name of duty.

Tuiren Branloch is heir to the Merrow of Inis Allta and sworn to serve the forbidden Order of the Drowned. Scarred by ancient rituals and conditioned for obedience, she believes that sacrifice is sacred. But when she witnesses the gods drag her brother’s lover into the abyss, she begins to question her faith—and the mother who leads their sect.

Before she can unravel the truth, she’s forced into a political marriage with Caelen Morvan, heir to her people’s ancestral enemies. The alliance is meant to stop a war before it starts, but Tuiren knows her true role: infiltrate the Aos Si, serve the Order, and prepare for whatever the Drowned Gods plan next.

As she navigates this new path while slowly losing her brother to grief, she finds that Caelen is frustratingly difficult to hate, and his sworn guard, Etain, stirs feelings in her that threaten to shatter everything she’s worked toward.

But when Tuiren learns of the Order’s true intentions, she must decide whether loyalty means obedience or defiance.