A contestant on a brand-new game show offering young criminals the chance at freedom and a cash prize by winning over viewers, Emerson desperately needs the money to save her family, but little does she know that winning is her only chance at survival because losing means death.

In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family. Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her. Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus's life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister...