ELIZABETH FREDLUND

It is said that when the gods refused to save the dying lands from the Goblins, the Fae intervened. They cleaved the world in two, creating their haven, and the Wilds. As punishment, the gods bound them to their lands with the Evervale.

 

Trapped, the Fae turned to humans for aid, employing them to retrieve the last remaining creatures of the Wilds.

 

Forty-two-year-old Ennery Castor is one such human, a Scout in service to the Fae, bound by a single oath: all life is sacred.

 

But that oath will be tested this year when her younger sister, Wren, comes of age.

 

Because winter is coming.

 

And winter belongs to the Goblins.

 

Each winter, they cross the Wilds to claim young women for a mysterious Rite. Few return, and those who do are no longer flesh but bone. A fate Ennery refuses to let happen to Wren.

 

Even hidden beneath the earth, in underground cities, there is no true way to escape them.

 

Not if they choose you.

 

Determined to protect her sister, Ennery risks everything—even agreeing to a marriage she never wanted. A bargain that could expose the secret she has been hiding, a secret her people would kill her for.

 

Then winter comes early.

 

And a Goblin takes her.

 

Everything Ennery knows begins to unravel. The monsters she was taught to fear are not the beasts she expected. They are beautiful, carrying a magic eerily familiar to the Fae. Almost human at a glance—but unmistakably something more.

 

And one among them draws her to him in ways she cannot explain.

 

Before the Winter Solstice, when the Rite begins, Ennery must decide what to believe, who to trust, and whether all life is truly sacred when survival demands a sacrifice.