Hounded by a cruel father and deceitful half-sister seeking to sell her off to creditors, Chloe takes an audacious gamble on survival. She signs an ominous matrimonial covenant in crimson ink, agreeing to become the eighth bride of Duke Vance, a supposedly deformed nobleman whose previous seven wives allegedly perished before dawn.
Rather than waking as another lifeless body in the castle crypt, Chloe discovers that Vance's wheelchair and terrifying reputation conceal a majestic ruler of the abyssal oceans. As she tends to his cursed wounds and wins his guarded heart, she must dodge palace schemers determined to unmask his true aquatic sovereignty before rival surface lords strike.
