She was supposed to die with the Court. Instead, she’s still breathing—bleeding, burning, and refusing to stay buried. Nyx Wrenvale is a broken weapon wrapped in leather and whiskey, haunted by ghosts and running out of reasons to keep fighting. Until she meets the one woman she should hate more than anyone alive—General Mei Lian, the traitor who let the Crimson Court burn. Now the mercenary and the exile are bound by something sharper than trust and far more dangerous than hate. Together they’ll hunt monsters, unearth forbidden power, and drag the vampire realm screaming into its reckoning. But between blood rituals, political corpses, and the kind of chemistry that could level kingdoms, Nyx and Mei will learn that the edge of a blade is nothing compared to the edge of desire—and once you fall, there’s no crawling back from the abyss. Vampires. Betrayal. Girls with swords and trauma. Welcome to the Masquerade. Try not to bleed too loudly.