Melinda Salisbury

Teenagers Corey Alloway and Bree Dovemuir are best friends. They live on an island where people still pray to ancient Greek gods, and the Underworld is rumoured to be visible from the top of a certain hill. They're closer than sisters—until Bree betrays Corey, and steals her boyfriend, Ali. Corey is consumed by hatred. She goes so far as to vehemently wish Bree dead. At the annual Thesmophoria Festival, Corey kisses a stranger, a boy with golden lips, to show Bree and Ali she's over them both. And later that night, Bree is found floating in the lake—dead....

For four years Twylla, the goddess-embodied whose touch can poison and kill, has lived in the castle of Lormere, . But when Prince Merek, her betrothed, who is immune to her touch, returns to the kingdom she finds herself caught up in palace intrigues, unsure if she can trust him or the bodyguard who claims to love her.