Beyond the pale moonlight lurked a malignant blackness threatening to consume everything—even Toni’s father. Toni knew her father feared nothing more than the dark. She prayed she could help him face it.

Toni stared at the doctor without really seeing him, trying to comprehend his words, hoping she’d misunderstood.

“. . . basically just medical jargon,” he said, pausing to meet Toni’s eyes. “The bottom line is your father is going blind.”

Toni tried to swallow the lump in her throat. “How long?”

“Hard to say. I believe he’ll be legally blind before he turns seventy-three, but I suspect his vision will be too poor to paint in no more than two years.”

The eye chart in the corner blurred as tears brimmed in her eyes. “Isn’t there anything you can do?, I’m afraid he might simply give up, if he can’t . . .” Toni’s strained voice broke.

The doctor reached across his desk and gave Toni’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “I know. I’ve thought the same thing.” He handed Toni a box of tissues before continuing. “This would be bad enough for a normal person, but for the world-renown Frank Turin . . .”

Lamplight blazed, glinting off cups raised in toast to the upcoming wedding. Yet through the blur of music and conversation and laughter, all Daymonde could think about was the tall, shapely woman seated just down the table from him.

And now, hours later, still she haunted him. The pulsing throb of insect song filled the warm summer night, and overhead all three moons floated in a sea of stars. Daymonde snorted as he strolled alone through the royal gardens. Did the moons herald some auspicious event besides marking the eve of his wedding?

For six months he’d prepared for the event, supported Fiona as she began her reign after her father’s death. Convinced himself of his commitment to her and that he’d chosen contentment—until the arrival of the first guests less than a sennight before, from all over Nyland and beyond, and Sheena appeared.

She was wildness beneath the thinnest veneer of culture. Ruthless and vulgar, all too aware of how her beauty pulled men’s eyes to her as she sauntered into a room. She’d caught Daymonde’s attention with her fluid grace, then held it with the untamed brilliance behind her calculating gaze.