...Some Vows are until Death... Others carry far beyond the Grave. When an unearthly terror is unleashed upon her sleeping world, sixteen-year-old Adelheide is roughly forced from naivety back into reality. Driven by dread suspicions, she begins to unveil the shrouded history surrounding the gruesome Origins of the Ancient Neiphile, and finds herself plunged head-long into a clandestine world of secrets, intrigue, and mortal danger... Tangled in the midst of it all, Adlai is startled by the strong passions of a rugged, branded Stranger, yet lured by the enticing desires of a nomadic young Warrior-both of whose histories are tied together in a perplexing twist of events. As ghosts from the past emerge, Adlai quickly discovers that Love has never before been as crucially complicated-nor as lethally dangerous-as when the survival of life itself hangs in the balance... ...Only one thing is sure: for better or for worse, their fates are all intertwined-bound together by the grim, malevolent power of The Oath.