The Devil wasn't real. Only men were.
After five long years, Jackson Hadley has begrudgingly returned home. As a highly regarded surgeon and alienist, he spends his time traveling through the varying cities of Elione with a colleague to assist in capturing deviants and murderers. Yet now, the Queen has requested his immediate presence in the capital, and he can no longer ignore the city that shaped his disdain for the shallow human mind. Hesitant of the backlash he may face, he intends to remain inconspicuous during his visit. He isn't given much of a chance, however, when the cut-up body of a prostitute is found displayed in the heart of the city, devoid of blood, seven hours from the last time she was seen alive. Jackson leans on his brothers, Owen and Elijah, to help uncover the truth.
Jade Calvert was born in a gilded cage, far from the derelict streets of Trinity Row. Where the impoverished fight for their lives, and most turn to streetwalking to survive. A true living nightmare, yet so was being fed by a silver spoon. With the sudden death of her mother and years of living under her father's violent heel, Jade yearns for freedom. Out of reach from the rules of society to where she can finally breathe. Her resolve is easy when she is the subject of an arranged marriage to a man with no regard for anyone below his station, although life isn't so simple. Her world is turned upside down in a chance encounter with Jackson, and he sparks something hidden deep within her, threatening to expose her family and the fate of humanity altogether.
As the bodies pile up, Jackson and his brothers are hindered from doing their jobs and are left questioning the motives of man. Yet the deeper they dig. It's clear that some things should remain hidden for good.
Jade and her siblings struggle with what resides deep within, but even as they fight to survive, one thing remains, they have the power to unleash it all. Proving there is more truth to any myth than one would dare to believe.
