New Mexico Territory. 1868. Marcus Rivers knows something is very wrong with the magic around Ruby Gulch. He's kept his suspicions to himself, but his investigations have gone nowhere. And after months of living rough and fruitless searches, he's on the verge of giving up. Then the mine owner’s son comes home. Freshly graduated from the San Francisco University of Magic, William Dolan returns to find the town on edge. Even the land thrums with tension. When he meets Marcus and together they stumble onto the secrets of the mine, Will is going to have decide if he's able to defy his father. If he's strong enough to go for what, and who, he knows what's right. The differences between the two men are as wide as the desert. Wealth, race, status – despite all this, fate keeps throwing them together again and again. They're going to have to work together if they're going to save countless lives. The hard part, however, is going to be figuring out what to do with their hearts if the ruby dust ever settles.

When Owen McBride sees his lover Jericho stagger into their homestead outside of Ruby Gulch, New Mexico, he thinks he’s seeing the dead come back to life. Jericho was lost to him when the wagon train he was leading was taken by monsters called Eaters, and Owen expected to be alone the rest of his life. Blind, poisoned by magic, and near real death, Jericho Nater comes back to Owen, needing the love his man offers, and his help. The doomed wagon train’s children are still alive, and Jericho has promised to go back for them. Owen can’t bear to lose Jericho again, but he would never deny Jericho something so important. Together they must find a way to save those kids, and to make their way home alive.

Augustus Ambrose never planned to return to the United States after graduation. His mother’s final letter, with its dire threats about what would await if he did, had been more than enough to keep him away. But when his Aunt Grace dies unexpectedly and leaves him her ranch in the New Mexico Territory, he can’t ignore it. Grace gave him everything, and he can’t let her legacy suffer for his childish fear of his mother. Griffith Taylor doesn’t want much. Quiet nights on the range, a big blue sky, and no rattlesnakes in his boots. He definitely doesn’t want to travel to Boston to take care of his late boss’s heir. When he lays eyes on his charge, everything changes. Not just because Augie is the best looking greenhorn he’s ever clapped eyes on, oh no. Someone wants Griff’s new boss dead, and they’re not afraid to use forbidden magic to get the job done. Griff can handle himself in a fight, but this job might be more than he’s prepared for.

Finnian is an Irish folk healer, a witch who specializes in healing magic. He's new to America and is going west to seek his fortune in a place rumored to be steeped in magic—a town called Ruby Gulch, deep in the New Mexico Territory. When he meets Ishago, an injured Navajo on the trail, their lives become inexorably entwined. They risk their hearts and lives to steal a magic stone from a sleeping dragon, and in the process set events in motion that may destroy them all.