Death was hunting Cassiopeia Jaynes; she just didn’t know it yet.

When Cassy was gifted the kiss of death shortly after her twenty-first birthday, she felt certain that Death himself had done so. She knew she had been chosen for something greater, that he had seen something in her that marked her as special. Only…he hadn’t chosen her at all. Whatever or whoever gifted her the kiss of death had done so without Death’s permission, and now…now she is being punished for using it.

Death has given the ghosts of the world a task: Find the Shadow Kisser and bring her to him. Their reward for turning her in? He won’t reap their souls and they can remain on the earthly plane forever. Most ghosts, as it turns out, are desperate to avoid the permanent removal of their souls from this world. The ghosts who aren’t Ruin Morrigan, that is. Ruin himself may be a ghost, but he wants to make a deal with her. She can hunt other ghosts for him and, in exchange, he will protect her from Death. Ruin and the other ghosts are not impervious to her deadly kiss, but Death certainly would be. What choice did she have?

Working with Ruin is riskier than Cassy imagined, especially when her treacherous heart begins falling for the ghost whose lies and secrets begin to pile so high she can’t see over them. But between ghost attacks, hellhounds, and reapers sniffing her out, she doesn’t see a way out of the precarious situation without him. The odd pair are forced together, a formidable bond forming harrowingly fast, and there is no way to avoid their inevitable, star-crossed fate.

Cassy’s lips may not be able to touch Ruin, but will his dare to touch her?