When Truyan Saigas’s father is lost at sea, she turns to forging valuable paintings to support her mother and two younger sisters. Desperate for cash after her mother’s gambling loss causes a lender to threaten to collect by abducting her sister, Tru hopes to pay off the debt with the sale of her most impressive work. Instead, Elang, a half-human, half-dragon prince exiled from his homeland by his grandfather, the Dragon King, offers an alternative solution. If Tru agrees to marry him and paint a perfect portrait of his grandfather, the Dragon King will be dethroned, and Elang’s generous compensation will cover her family’s debt and set them up comfortably for life. As an added incentive, Elang shares that her father may be alive and imprisoned by the Dragon King. Tru signs a contract and travels with her new husband to his besieged underwater fortress in the dragon realm, where she works on the portrait, drawing both on her artistic skill and her hidden ability to paint visions of the future. In a Chinese-inspired nod to the “Beauty and the Beast” motif, Tru and Elang’s sham marriage evolves into genuine romance while the deadline for the portrait’s completion and the threat of the Dragon King’s powerful wrath draw near.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A breathtaking romantic fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast about a girl who paints the future and a cursed dragon lord, bound by love and deception in a plot to bring down the gods.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes!

“Everything I love in a story—danger, complex characters, romance, betrayal and gorgeous writing.” —Mary E. Pearson, New York Times bestselling author of Dance of Thieves

Truyan Saigas didn't choose to become a con artist, but after her father is lost at sea, it’s up to her to support her mother and two younger sisters. A gifted art forger, Tru has the unique ability to paint the future, but even such magic is not enough to put her family back together again, or stave off the gangsters demanding payment in blood for her mother’s gambling debts.

Left with few options, Tru agrees to a marriage contract with a mysterious dragon lord. He offers a fresh start for her mother and sisters and elusive answers about her father's disappearance, but in exchange, she must join him in his desolate undersea palace. And she must assist him in a plot to infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King's inner circle, painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms. . . .