Keagan is bethrothed to Ashbel for an arranged marriage of convenience. Aedre, the princess of the Water Kingdom, is at constant odds with her mother over the policy of continual war the nation of her taboo lover. The love between the opposite elementals is such taboo that they both risk execution for it. Indeed, physical love is fatal and the slightest caress is a heady combination of pleasure and pain- not that the risk isn't worth illicit liaisons.
Imprisoned and sentenced to death on false charges by the Water Queen, Keagan believes he must prevent the mutual destruction of his and Aedre's worlds as genocidal war looms. But the choice is not so simple. As the worlds race headlong toward destruction, can Keagan to prevent war and ultimately genocide, while remaining true to Aedre? Will Keagan and Aedre's hateful and bigoted worlds force the lovers to abandon them to their fate?