She arrived as a hostage. She stayed as the only person who could see through him.

Princess Sera of Velmoor has spent her whole life making herself useful— useful enough that no one would notice she had never once been free. When her father sends her to the court of King Aldric of Ashenveil as the "honoured guest" of a fragile peace treaty, she knows exactly what she is: a political bargaining chip wrapped in diplomatic titles. She comes prepared. She has read every clause, found every weakness, and mapped every seam in the agreement that is supposed to end thirty years of war.

What she hasn't prepared for is Aldric.

He is not the tyrant the reports promised. He is a man who reads in the dark and argues with his own council— a king who has built a greenhouse full of roses in a cold stone palace and hasn't let himself want anything in eleven years. He asked for her by name. He doesn't know she's already uncovering the secret that could destroy everything he's trying to build.

Because the war that tore their kingdoms apart was never what either of them believed. The evidence is buried in Aldric's own archives— and it points straight back to Sera's father.

She could seal it away. Keep the peace. Let the lie hold.

But Aldric has already told her: Whatever you find, I would rather know.