Perched between branches and shadows, we watch, we scheme, fighting for a kingdom forgotten and forlorn. Until we rip her away with our claws, our prisoner, our pawn, our plaything. She’s innocent and pure, fragile and helpless…but oh so guilty by blood. She calls us beasts, wicked and evil, vicious and cruel. We are all that and worse. One of us offers her shelter beneath his wings, whispering promises of pleasure, seeking redemption. The other longs to shatter her into a million pieces, whispering promises of pain, seeking revenge.

Dahlia Abernathy has only known revenge. When her parents were killed at an early age by vampires, Dahlia spent the rest of her life under the thumb of the Witch's Guild being trained to kill them. Her latest mission sends her undercover to a prestigious music academy in Venice, Italy. Her goal? To kill Professor Valtu Aminoff, her teacher and the notorious vampire who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. But getting close to a dangerous vampire like Professor Aminoff is one thing. Falling for him is another.

This 2-in-1 box set collects both installments in Liv Zander's Pale Court duet: King of Flesh and Bone and Queen of Rot and Pain. This duology is a dark-fantasy romance featuring a ruthless man, a woman who can't escape his love, and a Happily Ever After. This world contains dark themes, violence, loss, and elements of horror some may find disturbing. What this book doesn't contain is a hero—because villains do it better.

Meet Ophelia Hart. Lover of classic literature and unicorns. An orphan with nobody in her corner—no family, no friends. But it’s her loneliness that fuels her life’s ambition to become a social worker and help the forgotten children just like her. For a foster kid with only slightly above-average grades, it feels like a pipe dream. Except it seems that someone is looking out for Ophelia after all. When an unexpected opportunity to attend Montridge University arises, she thinks her life is finally taking a turn for the better.

Isolation, darkness, and rotting flesh surround me, suffocate me, but I am the vile ruler who controls it all. I long for warmth, yet all that I touch is cold. Then, she stumbles in to my domain, lost and frightened, alone and confused. And I terrify her even more. She calls me the devil, so I show her pleasure, like only the devil can. I am the heat that stirs her flesh, the longing that trembles her bone. She begs her body to refuse, to escape my embrace, but I am her master, the puppeteer of passion. I am the King of Flesh and Bone. Welcome to my court, little one.

He is the future sultan, a man who wields brutal magic and only knows how to be what they’ve made him. She is a commoner, a woman who champions the vulnerable and treads where she does not belong. Dilay Akar is the daughter of a judge. By day, she trains the wealthy in magic, and by night, she breaks the Sultan’s laws. But even those closest to her do not always appreciate what she is striving for, or believe that she can achieve it.

When my father wanders into the enchanted realm of the fae, I know I have to go after him. And when he gets imprisoned, I'll do anything to save him, even trade my freedom for his. I had no idea I'd end up imprisoned by four sexy fae who turn into beasts at night.

When Rennick was thirteen, the gods bestowed upon him the name of his fated mate—a human girl. As the sole heir to the Mountain Kingdom, magic bound him to his kingdom until he ascended the throne on his twenty-fifth birthday. As a human, she couldn't cross the magical barrier separating the humans from the fae. Heartsore and consumed with thoughts of her, he did the only thing he could and sent her anonymous letters and gifts… Until he crossed the barrier into her kingdom to claim her as his own.

One heroic act damned me for eternity. With a name like Tor, I should have been a hero, just like my father and twin. Turns out I’m not. Not even close. Instead I’m the very thing we hunted. A depraved monster. I thought there was no escaping the curse. No hope for a future. And then I met my mate in the unlikeliest of places: Blackwood Asylum. A place for criminals. Power-hungry madmen. Supernatural outcasts. And her, the curvaceous writer who sees ghosts.

Just hours after humans are born, the gods take what little power we have. In return, they protect our borders from the vicious, merciless fae. The humans who manage to keep their power are known as the corrupt. And they are burned. When my forbidden power is discovered, I’m forced to flee my tiny village and the life I adore. To survive, I make a desperate bargain with the mercenary who abandoned me at my weakest moment. Our deal is simple: I’ll help him and his mysterious friends sneak into the city, and he’ll help me learn to wield the strange, dark power I’ve always kept hidden.

Six years ago, I awoke in a cage with no knowledge of who I was or where I’d come from. Six years ago, I was spared the flesh markets and instead thrown in with a group of savages, where I learned it was fight or die. Now, eight Orders of Assassins are converging on the only home I’ve ever known. All in hopes of purchasing new blade slaves for their ranks. I’m for sale, yet all I want is a life far from death and ownership. Then I meet them, the Order of Scorpions. Their allure is a threat to the freedom I crave, but I won’t fall victim to their sting, no matter how tempting it might be.

Once upon a time, a handsome prince asked the academy wallflower to the ball. She was blinded by the stars in her own eyes and the pitter-patter of her lonely heart. Little did she know this prince was no prince at all, but a villain disguised behind a charming smile.

I'm not so different from most people. Like everyone else, I have life goals. Goal #1: Become a real girl instead of this invisible ghost thing I currently am. Goal #2: Convince the four men I've been haunting for the past five years to pick me to be their new toy after goal one is complete. Goal #3: Figure out who/what I am and why I can't remember anything past the five years I've been haunting this quad. Goal #4: Eat popcorn. See? Perfectly normal. Sort of. Gotta start small, after all. It's not like anyone else is perfect either.

Lina wants the one thing a ghost can’t have. To be touched. When she’s given the opportunity to rejoin the world of the living and experience exactly that, the muscle-bound immortal warrior with icy blue eyes is just what the doctor ordered.

My one piece of advice: Never kiss a stranger. See, I kind of kissed this sexy man at the bar on a dare once, and it turns out he’s a Royal Fae destined to be my mate. Now I’ve been dragged to the Elemental Fae Academy to control the powers I unlocked that night.