For two thousand years, the laws of the realm were absolute. An Unlit Mother exists in dark neutrality, a sacred, emotionless altar created for the sole purpose of bleeding life into a barren world. Once her divine purpose is served, she is stripped of her flesh and blood, giving away daughter after daughter to build empires she will never see, waiting for the single royal spark destined to ignite her soulmate bond. She was the First. The immortal vessel carved from cold stone. The one the gods forgot. After two hundred stolen children and centuries of dark isolation, the ice in her veins finally begins to shatter. Emotion is a dangerous stain left behind by centuries of quiet grief, and when a ruthless warrior king, known across the lands as an unyielding executioner, forces his way into her sanctuary, the ancient curse ignites. His touch brings a terrifying wave of feeling, thawing a heart that was never meant to beat. Bound to a monarch feared by nations and hunted by the shadows of an ancient design, she must navigate a world of treacherous courts, dark rumors, and a newly awakened human heart. Will their love prevail, or will the First Unlit Mother be swallowed by emotions?