She never wanted the crown. But the crown wants her - and it's slowly killing her. Cassandra Blackwood has always paid the price for doing the right thing. Single mother, supernatural investigator, reluctant reformer - she has spent years holding Buffalo's fractious supernatural community together with sheer stubbornness and cold coffee. Then the Obsidian Throne chose her, and everything changed.
Six weeks into her unwilling reign, the silver lines spreading beneath Cass's skin are no longer a warning - they're a countdown. The Throne has consumed eighteen rulers before her, and it has no intention of stopping at nineteen. As she fights to dismantle centuries of supernatural corruption and build a parliament that might actually protect the vulnerable, the magic carved into her bloodline keeps feeding, keeps growing, keeps taking.
She has allies: Kieran, the fae ambassador who sees too much and says exactly enough; Dominic, the vampire Chief Justiciar whose centuries of careful distance are quietly, irrevocably crumbling. And she has enemies: the Crownless, a revolutionary faction with a terrifyingly reasonable argument, led by a woman who understands the Throne's power all too well.
There may be a way to unmake the Throne before it unmakes her. But the ritual is dangerous, Parliament is divided, her children are watching, and the price of power - as Cass has always known - is never paid just once.
Some thrones are built to be broken. She just has to survive long enough to break it. 
