Once the belle of her village, life took a dark turn for Adelaide upon her parent’s death. Plagued by lingering grief, there was not a soul who didn’t turn their back on her. They called her angry and spiteful… Hell, they called her a monster. One fateful day Adelaide finds herself alone, lingering on the edge of The Perished Woods—a cursed and evil place. Without warning, an orc army attacks. Her village ablaze, Adelaide races into the Perished Woods, seeking refuge in a place of nightmares. With orcs at her heels, she’s desperate to escape. But when the young woman crosses an aging stone bridge in the middle of the cursed forest she’s met with an even more fearsome enemy. A troll… one who is determined to save her.

Desperate to find answers to the whereabouts of her niece, Ellyn does the unthinkable and releases a criminal brought in from the Perished Woods. Believing him to be nothing more than a man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, she enlists his aid as a tracker. But the dark night can only shield his true form from her view for so long and when Ellyn finally looks into Ash’s ghostly eyes, she knows exactly what type of monster she’s released. An orc… the same fearsome beast responsible for the burning of her niece’s village. Forced into the cursed woods with a traveling companion he never meant to keep, Ash wants nothing more than to lose the girl, but the longer he walks with Ellyn at his side, he realizes he’s more apt to lose himself.

Lost to the madness of a witch’s curse, the Orc King advances on the castle at Pontheugh. His heart pulls him in one direction while magic drags him in another. All the while, fate is at work, bringing two lonely souls ever nearer. Alba…her heart breaking day by day. She’s driven to her own kind of madness. A raid on her village should have been devasting and yet, she finds herself saved—free to start anew. But her deepest desire is unchanging and she finds herself so easily Captured by the Orc King.