Trish has lost hope.

Monstrous tree creatures with branches for hair and bark for skin have taken and experimented on her. Tortured her. They call themselves dryads and the worst is their tyrannical ruler Cypress. He’s kidnapping and sacrificing humans to save their dying kingdom.

As they’re dragging Trish up to an altar to be fed to their great tree, a happenstance explosion knocks her free…and into the arms of the kingdom’s most wanted man—Linden.

He’s charming. He’s flirty. He lives in a manor atop a waterfall. He rides on a giant fox he raised from a kit. He’s ridiculously handsome for a man made of wood. He’s at war with the mad king Cypress.

And he might be Trish’s last chance.

Not to live, no. Her body’s being eaten from the inside out. She won’t make it past winter. She’s done with being scared, with waiting for a hero, hoping for someone to fix what’s broken.

With Linden’s help, Trish will fight. Fight to live. Fight to save her people. Fight to spend one more moonlit night with her dryad bandit under the stars.

Even if the kingdom’s indomitable General Hickory is coming to stop them, she won’t quit. She won’t give up.

Trish is dying of cancer and Cypress is going to learn what happens when he tries to stop a woman with nothing left to lose.