Their match is fated to spell their extinction. One shifter seeks death as their punishment.

Coal Hatch, a Wingai bird shifter, knows he’s breaking the rules when he visits the coffee shop in the mornings to see the girl operating a small bakery business within. He’s a week away from his eighteenth birthday when his wings will choose his match. He must marry, to further the line of Leads. It’s time to give her up, not fall more in love with a girl he can’t have—unless, he can convince his wings to choose her.

Ember Seed loves it when Coal says hi to her while she’s working in the coffee shop. She’s had a crush on him for years, but she knows she’s completely wrong for him. She’s hearing impaired, making her an outcast in a world of physically perfect shifters. To top it off, her doctor informed her she likely can’t have children—something Coal absolutely needs to ensure the Wingai’s survival. A match to her would kill the future of their race. Coal can be nothing more than a daydream.

Coal and Ember surprise themselves and the Wingai community when their secret crushes on each other become reality. Their wings have made them matches. While putting in the work to make a real relationship between them happen, word of Ember’s health issues break out. Panic ignites, starting a community effort to find solutions for Ember and save their future. One shifter is convinced Coal’s wings made the wrong choice for a mate. For dooming all Wingai with an unsuitable match, torture, and death is the only appropriate punishment.