No human woman is allowed to speak to an Aldar, lest she fall under his spell. I made it to my eighteenth birthday before I ever broke that rule...

Bel has often challenged the traditions of her village, and as her coming-of-age ceremony approaches, a forbidden encounter with a handsome Aldar-tall, supposedly-magical beings from the north-makes her question the wisdom of her elders as never before.

Then her mother's scheming earns her a prominent place in the line-up of eligible maidens and she finds herself betrothed to the village's most despicable bachelor. When the handsome Aldar reappears, Bel decides she will have one more thing-one more night-to call her own before her dreaded marriage.

But in a world where piety and purity are prized above all else, secrets don't stay secret for long, and Bel's one night of passionate abandon becomes a struggle for her life-and the life of her Aldar lover-against the world she thought she knew and all that she's been taught to hold sacred.