Lorelei Kaskel joined the expedition to prove she could become a naturalist and travel freely to lands she knows only from books. Then her beloved mentor, the expedition’s leader, is murdered in her quarters aboard the ship, and the search for a fabled spring falls to Lorelei.
That spring is said to hold untold power, which the king wants for his hold on embattled Brunnestaad.
Six eccentric nobles set out with Lorelei to find it.
Five companions are left, each with a motive.
The one person she is sure must be innocent is Sylvia von Wolff, the longtime academic rival she finds unbearably gallant and impossibly beautiful.
Lorelei has to reach the spring before the murderer strikes again and a coup begins in earnest.
Forests rearrange themselves at night, dragons sleep beneath the rivers, and shapeshifting beasts hunt for blood.
She and Sylvia work together only as far as the expedition forces them to, even as both resist the feelings growing between them.
The secrets their mentor kept leave Lorelei wondering whether chasing justice still matters, and whether Brunnestaad deserves to be saved.
