The Darkness Within Us

Chrysantha Stathos has spent years playing an air-headed beauty to hide her intelligence and ambition. The act has worked: she is a wealthy duchess, and once her elderly husband dies she will have the freedom, money and safety she has always wanted.

Then a man turns up claiming to be the estranged grandson of her lecherous late husband, and he intends to take her inheritance. His name is Eryx Demos. He is handsome and secretive, and he has mysterious powers.

Chrysantha's problems do not stop there. Her little sister Alessandra is about to become queen and enjoys reminding her of it. Chrysantha decides to upstage Alessandra at the royal wedding, and to get rid of Eryx for good.

A companion novel to The Shadows Between Us, this fantasy romance runs on an enemies-to-lovers dynamic with a morally grey heroine who schemes to get what she wants. Chrysantha wants Eryx dead, and the open question is whether she can go through with it.