In 1876, we were called to Savannah, Georgia to help with an infestation of demons. If we'd known what we, my wife Evangeline, and I, were walking into, we'd have run the other way. As it was, we shared tea with a vampire and stepped into a battle we did not understand until it was too late.

"Happily Ever After" wasn't supposed to come with a do-over option. But when my husband of twenty years packs up and heads for greener pastures and my son leaves for college, that's exactly what my life becomes. Do-over. This time, though, I plan to do things differently. Age is just a number, after all, and at forty I'm ready to carve my own path. Eager for a fresh start, I make a somewhat unorthodox decision and move to a tiny town in the Sierra foothills. I'll be taking care of a centuries old house that called to me when I was a kid.

Plucked out of the Collector’s Pens, auctioned off to a vampire contingent, and sent across the ocean to the Alpha Territories was not exactly how I planned to spend my week. Actually, scratch that. I had planned the first bit. But I was supposed to be sold to the werewolves so I could save my friend from a fate worse than death. Instead, the bloodsuckers have me and so far? It's not going great. I've been shoved into a corset and made to look like an extra on the cast of Bridgerton, all to take part in the Harvest Games....

Ten years ago, I "died", and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I should have known it wouldn't last. Once my family thought I was dead I was finally free to live. Until the day my brother walks into my tiny book shop....

I had no idea how those words would change my life. Or how they’d changed my life already...until the day the most dangerous man I’ve ever met waltzed onto my farm and left us a death sentence. In an invitation. My younger brother has been chosen for the prestigious, secret magical school hidden within the folds of our mundane world. A place so dangerous, they don’t guarantee you’ll make it out alive. If he doesn't go, our entire family will be killed. It’s the same invitation my older brother received three years ago - the same place where he mysteriously died.

When children go missing, and the Humans have no leads, I'm the one they call. I am their last hope in bringing home the lost ones. I salvage what they cannot. A missing girl and a deadly item belonging to a power-mad demon need to be found before the killing begins. The problem? This is my first salvage. And I have no idea what I'm doing. These were the moments that began to define me, my skills, and my drive to face down the darkest side of the supernatural in order to bring children home. This is where my journey began...

I knew the sins of my past would call to collect what was left of my soul. If I'd known the price I'd pay, I would've sacrificed more to stay hidden from the magic. In the middle of Wyoming - away from the abnormals of the world - I thought I was free and clear. I started a new life. Found a love I'd never known in a husband, and a son who was my everything. And in a blinding instant, that life was stolen from me.

"Happily Ever After" wasn't supposed to come with a do-over option. But when my husband of 20 years packs up and heads for greener pastures, and my son heads away to college, that's exactly what my midlife becomes. A do-over. This time, though, I plan to do things differently. Age is just a number, after all, and at 40 I'm ready to carve my own path. Eager for a fresh start, I make a somewhat unorthodox decision and move to a tiny town in the Sierra foothills.

You are mine now. Mine to play with. Mine to break. He is secrets, danger and passion. He is forbidden sin. And now he holds the key to destroy all I hold dear. The Dark Fae prince never told me his name. Not when he tried to seduce me, and not before he purposely botched one of my jobs and stole what was mine—a dangerous relic with unlimited power. It has the ability to break kingdoms… and tear down the wall that separates the human world from the dangerous, wyld magic of the fae. He knows that I will do anything to protect my family. Even follow him beyond the wall, into his lands.

From New York Times bestselling author Shannon Meyer comes a riveting dark romantic fantasy fairy tale retelling of Cinderella, where a cursed heroine must navigate forbidden love with the King’s brother, a brewing revolution, and haunting secrets that could shatter the kingdom and change her...