gleaming darkness, luminous night

Several thousand years ago, King Yaldaboath purged the Unseelie from the Summer Kingdom and sealed the Barrier, permanently separating the two realms and sparing the Seelie from the Darkening, a wasting disease spread by the Unseelie. The Seelie lived in peace under the King's rule until, mysteriously, the Darkening began to return, ravaging outlying towns and stirring panic everywhere.

Tucked away in the Summer Court, Goro has more immediate concerns: pleasing his cold and duplicitous father, maintaining his toothless and friendly facade, and hiding his own treasonous aspirations. The arrival of an enigmatic new page certainly doesn't help things. Akira is magnetic and unusually interested in him and Goro finds himself increasingly distracted. When the Darkening comes to their front door, Goro and Akira set out to discover the cause of the outbreak, but the answers they find throw everything about the world as they know it into question.