Nyla has spent years keeping her head down in the Hollow, healing the wounded, raising her young assistant, and staying invisible to the Empire that rules beyond the valley. That illusion ends the night an Imperial prince rides through her village with his feared entourage, hunting a fugitive. By dawn, the prince is found broken and bleeding in the snow. Nyla never intends to save him. Her oath leaves her no choice. Barius wakes stripped of title and memory, bound only to the healer who kept him alive. But when his past begins to surface, so does the truth: he is not a man the Hollow can afford to shelter and Nyla is not a woman the Empire will allow to remain untouched. As power closes in and loyalties fracture, Nyla is forced into the heart of Imperial politics, while Barius must choose between the man he was bred to be and the one he has become. In a world where mercy is dangerous and love is leverage, trust may prove the deadliest choice of all.