For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts his younger sister, Nadia, as payment to enter the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal--kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia's freedom. But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic ... requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition. When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a heart-pounding course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?

For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life. But when a vengeful spirit abducts his younger sister, Malik must strike a fatal deal.

As the fate of Sonande hangs on a single, horrifying choice, Princess Karina and Malik must decide between a power that could transform the world, or a love that could transform their lives. A violent coup left Karina without her kingdom or her throne. Now the most wanted person in Sonande, her only hope of reclaiming what is rightfully hers lies in a divine power hidden in the long-lost city of her ancestors. The resurrection of Karina's sister has spiraled the world into chaos, and threatens the hard-won peace Malik has found as Farid's apprentice. Karina herself is the key to restoring balance, but how can Malik regain the trust of someone he once tried to kill? When the fate of everything hangs on a single, horrifying choice, they each must decide what they value most: a power that could transform the world, or a love that could transform their lives. -- adapted from jacket