Being a bride is a state of mind, not of body. Lord Cariad's exciting journey as a cartographer working in the territory of the deadly Swarm turns to terror when his ship is boarded and he is captured. To disguise his identity, he pretends to be the captain's bed-warmer. That plan backfires when a leader of the boarding party takes him as his own. Balthazar pretends to live up to his reputation as the vicious son...