celistinekaori
Two Lives. One Blade. No Mercy.
By day, Akira Katsura is the ultimate "Porcelain Queen." To her overprotective brothers and the elite circles of Manila, she is a fragile, soft-spoken heiress who spent her years in Japan mastering the piano and the art of tea. She is the doll in the glass case-beautiful, expensive, and seemingly easy to break.
But when the sun sets, the doll is replaced by a demon.
In the blood-stained underworld of Kyoto, Akira is "The Ronin," the cold-blooded leader of the Shadow Lotus Syndicate. She didn't come to the Philippines for a family reunion; she came to wage a secret war. While her brothers try to shield her from the "dangerous" streets of Manila, Akira is secretly dismantling their enemies from the shadows, leaving nothing but cherry blossom petals and broken bones in her wake.
Her double life is perfect-until she meets Jace Velez.
Jace is a man built on suspicion and steel. As her brother's best friend and a titan of the Velez empire, he is tasked with being her shadow. But Jace doesn't see a princess; he sees a predator. He notices the way her hands don't shake when a gun is fired. He smells the faint scent of gunpowder on her silk dresses.
As a deadly conspiracy threatens to destroy the Katsura family, Akira must navigate a treacherous dance of lead and silk. Can she keep her mask from shattering, or will the man who is determined to protect her become the one who finally unmasks the Ronin?