The flight was delayed, and it was late by the time I finally returned to the States from my training abroad. I tried calling my husband to pick me up, but all my attempts went unanswered. Frustrated, I ended up taking a cab. On the way, I stumbled across a Facebook post from one of his so-called "close friends." The photo showed my husband, Ignacio, kneeling and holding her foot. She was wearing a loose, sheer blouse, her bare shoulder exposed, with a conspicuous love bite on her neck. The caption said, "Only a true friend is always there for you." I commented, "If you like him so much, why not keep him close?" Moments after posting the comment, Ignacio called me, furious. "Elina, have you lost your mind? Delete that comment right now! Rhea Scott is just a single woman, and your nonsense will make everyone misunderstand." "You know she sprained her ankle! I was just helping her out.

Elara Vance, the most powerful Rune-Crafter in the city, has a shattered soul-core. With days left to live, she begs her husband, Mage Lord Kaelen Thorne, for the Sun-Tear relic. Instead, he gifts it to Elara's delicate, 'powerless' cousin, Seraphina. Exhausted by a lifetime of being called too ambitious and cold, Elara stops fighting. She drinks a forbidden potion that masks her pain but accelerates her death, and spends her final five days signing away her Guild, her wealth, and her marriage. They think she's finally learning her place. They don't know she's leaving behind memory-crystals that will prove Seraphina poisoned her—and that their apologies will be delivered to a gravestone.

I made Arthur Sterling the CEO of my family's empire, preferring the shadows. Last night, I watched him steal my father's master encryption drive—and hand it to a pregnant woman. He thinks I'm succumbing to the early-onset dementia he's been secretly drugging me with. He thinks my mind is broken and my empire is his. He's wrong. I am Seraphina Vance, and I don't divorce traitors. I bankrupt them, ruin them, and erase them. And the lethal fixer I should have loved is helping me do it.

Elara sacrificed her magical core to build a safe haven for her husband Caelum and their adopted daughter. But as the deadly Rift storms approach, Caelum transfers Elara's protective ward-keys to his new lover, casting Elara into the dying outer slums. Branded a madwoman and abandoned by the child she raised, Elara accepts her exile. What they don't know is that Elara is the last living Apex Weaver. When the High Citadel offers her exclusive sanctuary in exchange for saving the realm, Elara takes the deal. Let the storms come—her ex-husband is about to find out exactly who was protecting whom.