The Art of Courts and Lies (Book 1 in The Gifted Trilogy)
52 parts Complete Ice flooded my veins as the realization of who he was hit me. It must have been evident on my face because the man in front of me let out a dark laugh.
"Oh dear, you didn't realize you were talking to a royal, did you darling?" he crooned.
Not just any royal. Kesserian Cinis. The recently coronated king and ruler over the Ember Court. I forgot how to breathe, my mind whirring as it tried to figure out how I could have been so stupid as to let this happen.
***************************************************
Wren Heatherfield is on the run. Having turned 18, she is now in danger of becoming selected for the Garner, a deadly game in which the six kings who rule over her continent take eighteen non-magical girls and make them fight for their lives. But as she tries to avoid the game by running away with her best friend and her sister, she consequently finds herself doomed to be a competitor in the 246th Garner.
But the Garner isn't the only thing capable of killing her. In a castle surrounded by kings with dark powers and girls fighting for their lives, she may find that the politics of royalty can be just as deadly as their games.
No one can be trusted in a palace full of monsters and, if Wren has any hopes of survival, she may have to become one herself.