After training her entire life to follow in the sacred footsteps of her matriarchs, Safah Anathelle is ready to prove herself worthy of the Temple’s highest path. The women of her bloodline are legends—devoted, exalted, and unmatched throughout the Empire. Now it’s her turn to rise.

But behind the Temple’s pristine gates, Safah finds no piety. Only cruelty. Devotion is demanded. Obedience is brutalized. And the sacred path she was taught to revere is soaked in blood. To break her into submission, she’s paired with Quazar Valoryen. Cold, lethal, and devastatingly handsome, the cursed prince will end her life if it means he’ll gain his freedom. He’s everything she was taught to hate—and the first to see through the mask of her flawless devotion.

As secrets unravel and blood stains the altar, Safah must choose: rise like the women who came before her… or be crushed beneath the Temple that made them.