The church has deemed healer Avice Gardener an outcast from her village — her strange herbs and ancient knowledge mean she is too witchy for comfort. But when a baby is born “wrong” and a second birthed with the mark of magic, Avice knows human remedies will not suffice. Instead, she takes the infants to Knucker Hill, at the entrance to the Underneath.
The dragonesque Knucker, King Trewoofe, has long watched Avice’s healing abilities from afar. For years, he has yearned for her gentle hands and kind eyes to rest on him a little longer. But when he agrees to help care for the suffering children she brings him, the church turns on them both, pouring poison into the Underneath.
Desperate to save the noble, wounded king, Avice takes Trewoofe into her home, riddled with darkness and barely clinging to life. And as the frost deepens, two hearts seek solace in one another… even as the outside world threatens to divide them forever.
