Despite finally being free, Charlotte has never been more lost. Adrift on the sea, she’s surrounded by dozens of rebellious LaViolettes who are hungry for change but unwilling to get their hands dirty. Lawrence is finally back at her side, which should give her the peace she’s been craving, but the unforgiving hand of resentment has already begun to spread its fingers through their tenuous relationship, and she doesn’t know how to stop it.

With Colleen a prisoner of an increasingly erratic Harlowe, every step Nicolas takes is the most precarious of his life. He’ll enact his craziest plan yet to get her back, but it will cost him more than he’s willing to pay.

Closer to home, Lauren is weeks from delivering their son, prompting him to make the first but most important demand he’s ever made of her: Stay. Let me protect you.

Lauren’s unborn son is Harlowe’s prime target for destroying the Deschanel legacy, so she agrees to his protection. She convinces herself there’s no other way, as she and Nicolas grow closer and more comfortable together in their sequestered hideaway, leaving her more confused—about Nicolas, but also Ashley, the man she believes she loves—than ever before.

As a volatile squall of sedition circles the family from all sides, it will take more than force to win the war that will leave both the Deschanels and the LaViolettes with nothing but ash and rubble.

The Midnight Dynasty series continues in this pulse-pounding penultimate tale.