It wasn't supposed to be this way. In the shadowed halls of Ravensgate manor, one tenet shines like a beacon: uphold the legacy. Like his brother and sister, Caledon Cullraven was raised to act as custodian to his great-grandfather's many dark secrets. Now, over a century later, those same secrets are threatening to bleed out of the papered walls and up from the flowering hellebore, to consume the town of Argentum, and the entire Cullraven family, in its sinister black rot.When he meets his younger sister-in-law, Cal finds himself a captive to the same sinister desires that have blighted his family line for generations. Because every time he's alone with Nadine, he can feel his control fraying: despite her gentle nature, she seems to crave the same vicious passions that could be her own undoing. And his.But his family does not approve of this match, and they will do anything in their power to drive them apart. With their ancestral festival drawing closer, Cal must decide between duty, family, and love, lest he lose himself-and his heart-to the Cullraven curse.The decent thing to do would be to send her away but no one had ever accused him of being a decent man.