Honor student and cheerleader, Bel Winter, works hard to be a normal teenager. But deep down, she knows she is far from normal. The glowing rose-shaped mark on her shoulder is her first clue. 

As her 17th birthday draws close, Bel's friends fear she is losing her grip on reality. Yet, Bel believes. The visions she sees are real. The men in black capes who come out of the shadows are real. And they're coming for her...

On the night of Bel's birthday, at the stroke of midnight, her world goes black. When she wakes, she is thrust into a new and frightening world—the underground Onyx City. It is a place rife with magic and creatures of the night. It is also a place of dark beauty, dangerous intrigue and ruled by a beast—the ruthless vampire prince, Ezra Blade.

When Bel makes a desperate attempt to escape her captors, she trespasses through the royal gardens, and is caught by the prince himself. Now, her fate is in his hands. 

Though she fears the mercurial Ezra, Bel knows he alone has the power to release her from the Onyx City. Can Bel tame the beast? And convince him to set her free?