Exiled after her mother's death, Princess Samara has hidden for years as a dancer in the Kingdom of Eskalon, where discovery would mean death.
She is an Azete, a faceless witch whose shapeshifting depends on stealing lifeforce through touch, and since the Queen of the Witches died she has used that power only to keep her disguise while feeding on the men she entertains.
A chimera attack on her tavern exposes her, and the current witch queen brings her home with one bargain: prevent a deadly prophecy and earn forgiveness.
The tyrant king's son, newly betrothed to a foreign princess, is fated to father a child who could destroy the witches, unless Samara steals the princess's face, claims the prince's heart, and bears that child herself.
The stolen face demands constant magic, and every feeding grows more dangerous as rival factions, the prince's enemies, and fresh chimera attacks unsettle the kingdom.
Harder still to survive is her love for a man who does not know her true name and has never seen her true face, except when he dreams of a woman who looks exactly like her.
The power she fears may be the only way to save him, but using it could cost her people, her life, and her heart.
