As the future heir of the Golden Wood, Lady Ashwood Fletchlocke is bound by birth to protect it's wild magic. Outsiders only ever saw the blessings it gave its people, the bountiful harvests and miraculous healing abilities of those born within its borders. They never see the curses they have to endure, the ways this ancient magic twists throughout the blood and bone of its people until eventually they too become part of the wood.

Guarding her heart from suitors of all sorts, Lady Ashwood decided years ago that she would only ever marry someone who understood both sides of that ancient magic. Her father, loathe to deny any request his beloved daughter made, wholeheartedly agreed.

But when her father goes missing and a marriage contract is forced upon her by the king himself, binding her to his adopted son, she vows to never let her new partner into her life.

But is her new husband truly her enemy?
Or is there something worse lurking within the shadows of the Golden Wood?