The morning of Adeline's sixteenth birthday dawns like any other. But while she dreams of spending time with her boyfriend, Sawyer, and planning their future together, a nobleman shows up and Adeline is forced to make good on a contract that was signed when she was a baby. With the time she thought she had running through her fingertips, Adeline has only days to plan an escape. Meanwhile, she has to worry about her relationship with Sawyer and what to do about her new mistress Katalia. But when Adeline enters the forbidden Golden Forest to save an injured horse, she never expects to unlock secrets older than the kingdom. Will these secrets lead her to the freedom she desires? is a prequel novella set a generation before the events of