Death is a lullaby, and only she can hear it. She was just a normal girl with average dreams and average problems. That is, until the line between life and death blurred for her. Stuck in life, undying, Maria de Cavinne is forced to seek answers and see ugly truths in places that she had least expected it. Julius Allyrh will do anything to save his friend and king. When his journey takes him to the doorsteps of a woman that is nothing like any he has ever met, he will do anything to get her to break all of her scruples, for very selfish purposes. The potent elixir of emotions that grow between them is wrong, dangerous and forbidden. As time goes on and they both unravel truths behind dynasties, see ancient prophecies come to life, it will be a constant struggle to stay above the dark executioner's blow. Will they survive it, or will their feelings be the end of them?

Chapter 1 Prologue

The first time for everything is always unique, different, unforgettable, and this time was no exception. For most people, there is only life, and then death. For her, she acutely remembers the first time she died. If she were asked to describe how it had felt for the breath to seize in her lungs and her heart to still in her chest for the first time, she would be at a loss for words.

For just as there are syllables that the human tongue cannot form and emotions that humans have yet to put a name to, this also was her first time experiencing death and no matter how many more times it happens, the elusive shroud of death will always remain a mystery to her.

She was there one moment, gone another, and yet there once again. It is something that humans with their proclivities to clinging to the known and to their comfort zone can never fathom, something that would have inspired their nearly constant fear of the unknown as surely as dawn, but then, only if they knew.

There are people that would do anything to continue living, and at the same time, people that would take the first chance to end it all.

For Maria, is her magic a gift or a curse?