Vesper Vale has never believed monsters are beasts.
Disgraced by the Royal Academy for defending the creatures others would dissect or burn, Vesper follows a trail of bodies to Graystone Keep, where pilgrims are dying beneath a ruined tower.
The Order of the White Brand calls the winged thing above the keep an abomination. The Academy wants whatever lies sealed below it.
But Vesper sees what no one else will: the dead are not being devoured. They are being warned away. Arranged. Witnessed.
Silas is no mindless killer. He is an ancient gargoyle of obsidian-veined stone, bound by grief, command, and a massacre the kingdom erased. To free him, Vesper must uncover the truth beneath Graystone Keep — and prove that even a monster made for obedience can still choose.
But Silas does not want salvation if it means becoming another possession.
And Vesper must decide whether the sanctuary she dreams of building is truly a refuge… or only a prettier cage.
A gothic fantasy romance of forbidden intimacy, ancient grief, dangerous tenderness, and a monster who must risk being known.
