I killed someone. I wasn't trying to be a monster-I was trying to survive. Now I'm tainted with something old, something deadly. Set before The Sanctum, I'm charged with murder... and possession of forbidden magic. My penalty? Death. Until him. My life-for his. Kael Forrester is given a choice: become my guardian... or die. He chose me. Flanked by his two best friends-a lethal wolf shifter and a nightmare of a shadow fae, I don't stand a chance. With my fate sealed, I'm delivered straight to the crumbling, brutal walls of Institute 13-a place built to control vermin like me. But I'm too hellbent on freedom to care. Everyone thinks I'll be easy to break. They're wrong. As my power awakens, darker and stronger than anyone expected, the truth becomes impossible to ignore. I'm not trapped in here with them. They're trapped in here with me.