The Death-God's Captive

Rule number one of the Underworld: Never look the God of Death in the eye. Evangeline Sol broke that rule the moment she forced open the Gate of Acheron. She didn't come to beg for her life; she came with a blade pressed to her own throat and a dying sister to save. She expected a monster. She expected an execution. She didn't expect him. Lord Acheron is a creature of perfect, terrifying winter. For ten thousand years, his touch has brought nothing but absolute ash. He is a king who rules over grey stone and silent souls, untouched and unfeeling. Until she outsmarted his guards. Until she demanded a bargain written in her own living blood. When his gloved fingers first grip her jaw, intending to crush her spirit, the impossible happens. He doesn't turn her to ash. Instead, her warm, defiant breath fractures his eternal frost, triggering a violent, agonizing pulse in his dead heart. He chains her to his obsidian palace, determined to break the mortal anomaly who dares to threaten his control. But Evangeline isn't a fragile doll—she’s a wild rose with thorns of steel. She may tremble, but she will never kneel. As ancient conspiracies rise to tear the Underworld apart, Acheron finds himself fighting a losing war against his own dark obsession. He wanted a captive to torment. Instead, he trapped the only wildfire capable of burning his entire kingdom to the ground. She belongs to the dark now. But the dark is beginning to realize... it belongs to her.