As a necromancer, Benoni has plenty of experience with raising the dead, wrangling angry ghosts, and hiding his powers-but he has no experience when it comes to love.

As the youngest child of deeply dysfunctional parents, Benoni learned to make himself invisible. This became useful when he developed the reviled gift of necromancy. Now, he's haunted by a trio of unruly orcs, alongside the ghost of his murdered brother, who, incidentally, is scared of other ghosts. Worse, Benoni has accidentally infected himself with a deadly necromantic rot.

Salvation appears in the form of the Dragon Emperor Julong. As a shapeshifting dragon, Julong can eat most of his problems, but not the army of angry ghosts running amok in his palace. In exchange for a cure for the rot, Julong commands Benoni to uncover who summoned the ghosts. The spiritual plague needs to be kept secret and Benoni needs authority in the palace-a pretend betrothal covers both.

Even a fake engagement draws Benoni into political intrigue and assassination attempts. The captivating, powerful, and handsome Julong serves as Benoni's protector and rock. But everyone keeps warning Benoni about an imperial curse, and Julong may have more to do with the ghosts than he's let on.

For a necromancer with only the dead for friends, no one living can be trusted-especially not a sexy dragon shapeshifter with literal ghosts in his closet.