Book excerpt: A king of frost.A queen of fire.A battle for the ages.The Frost King has been taken. Now a small band of Witch Walkers, including the vale's lone survivor, Raina Bloodgood, travel south to take back their king, led by the man who has claimed Raina's heart, the Witch Collector Alexus Thibault. Raina is conflicted as they head to the desert battlefields of the Summerlands. The others love the king while Raina's bitterness toward him resurfaces each time someone utters his name-Colden Moeshka.But sometimes Fate forces us to endure the very thing we loathe most. When Raina becomes separated from the Northland band, she finds herself captured alongside none other than the king himself. Under the cruel hand of an Eastlander Commander, the two must put aside their mutual dislike and devise a plan of escape before they reach the City of Ruin. Their enemies have a plan of their own, however. A plan no one sees coming until it's too late.In the midst of battle, Raina faces the most heartbreaking decision of her life-flee and live while all she loves is lost or stay and die. Sometimes there is no good choice. Sometimes the only ways out are all impossible. And yet, she must choose. Even if it kills her.