Elana Allard has been relentlessly, desperately drawn to the well since she was a child. Even in her sleep, she walks toward the final resting place of the shadow eating creature who lies at the bottom.
Her family has kept her safe, ensuring she's lashed to her bed each night, leather cuffs tight around her ankles. They wish she'd marry a man who could keep her in bed, but Elana has never felt the spark of love the bards sing about with any man she's met.
When a once in a century storm cracks the stone off the well, Elana's desire to go there carves her out. She hungers, growing pale and sick, until at last she relents and goes to the well on her own.
There she finds the monster isn't what she'd thought it was. The Darkness-Nessa-wants what many young women want: a nice place to stay, a nice dress to wear, and a trip into town with Elana.
And Elana feels things with Nessa that she's never felt for a man. Most of all, she realizes there is no cure for the force that drew her toward the well. Toward the monster.
Toward the darkness.
With her brother's suspicions plaguing her every move and the threat of banishment from her family to marry a man chosen for her, Elana must choose: a normal life that will keep her a prisoner forever, or a monstrous love unlike anything she's ever felt that will ensure her alienation from everyone and everything she's ever known.
