War has raged outside the walls of Troy for the past seven years. Safe inside the royal palace, Briseis, a spirited young Trojan princess, sits back as her famous cousins, Hector and Paris, fight against the Greeks, who encroach upon Troy's borders more each day. An ill-advised trip outside the safety of the palace leads to Briseis being captured and held hostage by the Greeks. She's put in the custody of Prince Achilles of Thessaly, a moody and impulsive young man who just happens to be the Greeks' greatest warrior. Achilles is destined to win glory and immortality but live a short and tragic life. Briseis is given in an arranged marriage to Achilles and the two find that their union might be based on more than just politics. But when Achilles comes into conflict with the greedy and powerful, King Agamemnon, it sets off a cycle of violence and tragedy that threatens all they both care about.

In his first life, Clause Ashet was nothing more than a ghost-the forgotten brother of Emperor Darius, locked away in a dark palace basement to rot. But when time rewound, fate twisted the threads. Instead of dying in the dark, Clause woke up bound by imperial decree to the cold, lethal Duke Regis Floyen. To the Empire, it's a political marriage. To Darius, Clause is a disposable leash to keep his most dangerous general in check. To Regis, Clause is an imperial spy who deserves nothing but distrust and contempt. With the memories of the tragic past still burned into his mind, Clause has only one goal in this second life: survive. But navigating a marriage with a duke who hates him, dodging the emperor who views him as a pawn, and trying not to scare his new stepdaughter Jubellian to death proves far harder than staying hidden in the shadows. Can two men bound by resentment and traumatic pasts learn to trust each other before the impending ruin catches up to them all?