Lilyana lives for the secrets hidden in the strata of time. A world-class archaeologist with an uncanny gift for botany, she has finally reached the pinnacle of her career: the excavation of the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon. She expected to find ancient irrigation and fossilized seeds. She didn’t expect the earth to swallow her whole.

Swept away in a violent whirlwind of dust and ancient power, Lilyana is ripped from the ruins of Iraq and dropped into a hidden realm of breathtaking life. This is no ruin; it is a tropical oasis made flesh, a paradise of impossible blooms and predatory grace. But beneath the lush canopy, the kingdom is screaming.

The realm is fractured, teetering on the brink of a bloody civil war, and she is the unexpected key to stopping the conflict before it begins.

With the weight of a world she doesn't understand on her shoulders, Lilyana’s only hope lies with a tight-knit circle of allies and her own blossoming power. But to save this paradise from its own thorns, she must solve the mystery that has haunted her since she was a baby: the truth about the mother she never knew. In a land where every root has a memory, the history Lilyana unearths will change everything.