Darkness Within Us

Chrysantha Stathos has spent years hiding her intelligence and ambition behind the image of a beautiful, empty-headed girl. The act has paid off. By nineteen she has gathered valuable secrets, won her father's constant care and become a wealthy duchess. Only one elderly, dying duke now stands between her and the freedom, money and safety she has always wanted.

Then her plans fall apart. Her younger sister Alessandra is marrying the Shadow King, the most powerful man in the world, and has taken the real prize. Meanwhile, after the death of Chrysantha's lecherous husband, a man turns up claiming to be the duke's estranged grandson and demands the inheritance she believed was hers.

Chrysantha is furious and refuses to let anyone take what she has schemed for. It does not matter that Eryx Demos is strikingly handsome, secretive and alluring, with mysterious powers. She wants him dead, because a Stathos girl always gets what she wants.