Society, suitors, and...serial murders? As much as she desires to please her family, gently-bred herbalist Jessa Caldwell has no intention of making a suitable match-not when she's seeking the truth about the taint of the fae that lies within her. If she's to escape the madness brought on by fae-touch, she must devote her energies to seeking a cure. But then mysterious tattoos begin to appear on the citizens of Avons. None recall receiving these harbingers of death, but all die at the hand of an untraceable killer days or weeks after being marked. When the tattoo appears on her beloved mentor, Jessa seeks the Magistry with information on the case-yet they refuse to consider her findings, so she must risk both social censure and her own safety to hunt for the killer herself. Her one possible ally represents her greatest fear-the encroaching Otherworld consuming her mind-and may well undo all her efforts to control her fae-touch. Yet if she forsakes the offered aid, the killer will go free. Something sinister stalks the streets of her city, and she must decide...how far will she go to stop the killing?