Elara Whitmore is forced to wear her sister Seraphina's black wedding gown and marry Cassian Ravenscroft—a vampire duke who slept for a century. On a stormy night, standing in the cliffside chapel, her hands shake so badly she can barely hold the ring. Cassian knows she is not the promised bride. He marries her anyway. Everyone expects her to be a placeholder, a disposable human, a sacrifice that won't survive the week. But when hunters fire silver arrows at her, her mother's moonstone brooch explodes with light. When the vampire council forces her to perform, her mother's old violin sets the entire hall ablaze with silver fire. When Seraphina returns to reclaim the marriage and her father offers a compensation agreement, Elara tears it apart in front of both families. The replacement bride refuses to be replaced. Thirty days later, she stands in the ruins of the old manor, bloodied and crowned, no longer wearing her sister's name. From borrowed bride to silver queen—she took back the life she never got to choose.
