Twenty-four-year-old Nephelle is a lone traveler on a personal journey into the unknown. With the death of her father – an extraordinary apothecary and researcher – constantly looming over her, she strives to be everything he trained her to be, seeing both beauty and brutality in all things. However, she is not perfect, nor a heroine.

While exploring the realm of Idirfold after spending her entire life caring for her mother, the lost daughter struggles to find purpose, her doubt fueled by anxiety and a deep fear of being perceived by others. The Fae that inhabit this realm are unfamiliar to her, giving her curious nature many more questions than answers. Her world becomes dark and cynical, twisting her perspective after she experiences the cruelty of nobles in the Kingdom of Lyndal.

Trauma from throughout her life clouds her mind, and her inquisitive nature seems to bring only more misfortune – that is, until an enchanting love permeates the thoughts borne of the jagged crucible within her. She might thank fate – which has never been on her side – not knowing that it was Prince Levian that sought her out.

Work becomes duty. Failures lead to devastation. Love turns to absolute obsession. Through all of this, Nephelle finds that her defiance only heightens Levian’s desires to keep her.

After stumbling through a portal into another realm of fae and magic, Nephelle discovers that there is more to living than the tedious life she once lived in Vaefeld as the Apothecary’s daughter. Not only does fate corrupt her naivety when she finds herself in a fae traffickers basement, but what—or who—she leaves with may prove to be her undoing.

At the hands of the rebellion, she is left with a choice—become a killer, or defy her strong sense of justice. She falls victim to the torment of the commanding sword of the rebels, Kage—a cruelly handsome elf that has a deeply-rooted hatred for humans.

Her desperation for genuine connection and the overbearing desire to fix broken things may be her downfall, she is a healer after all. Through blood and blades she will come to forget the things that once tied her to her past.

An Apothecary finds herself falling through a portal and into a magical realm, and though she has a deep desire to be of use to others, the hands that catch her when she falters happen to belong to the one rebel with a deep hatred for humans.