When the Peregrine Sapphire vanishes, Daybreak’s ancient storm-wall falters, and with it, Princess Astoria’s future and all she values is threatened. The ransom is steep: a kingdom’s wealth and her hand in a forced marriage that would end her island country’s freedom forever.
Astoria refuses to be a pawn in her father’s Royal Manipulation; and so, she escapes across the sea with her loyal guards.

Astoria runs straight into the cursed sands of Andelia. There, fate delivers a hair stick with deep secrets, and a new companion to her small band; Nox, a boy with death in his eyes, and blood on his hands. A boy whose dreams for the future have long been crushed beneath the heels of those who held in chains, all that he loved. Now bound to the princess by honor, to pay a life debt. Nox finds himself defending a woman who refuses to be coddled.

Together, they must face a desert full of curses and masked dangers. To save her kingdom,

Astoria must rediscover her magic while risking it all …and Nox must decide whether a man who has forsaken life can truly learn how to live and love again.