Crownless but not Powerless (not edited)

Hi everyone,
*Cover is not certain*

They told her she was nothing without a crown.
They were wrong.

Fifteen-year-old Nala Raven knows the world isn't fair. In the Ash Wards, survival is earned with fists, daggers, and secrets. By day, she hides behind school walls where girls are taught to smile, bow, and serve. By night, she trains in shadows, weapon in hand, grief burning like fire in her chestand a power in her mind that lets her sense the echoes of others, feel their regrets, and whisper into their choices.

The willow she planted for her dead brother is the only place she can still breathe. But when she crosses paths with Alexander Violet-the prince raised to be her enemy-her carefully guarded world begins to unravel. Nala believes the king is cruel and unfeeling, his kindness a mask for ambition, and that Xander shares his coldness. What she doesn't yet know is that the true danger comes from not the king but someone else someone she knows that person killed her brother

Xander, too, carries secrets of his own. Trained in stealth and survival by a lost childhood friend, he moves unseen, reads the room, and keeps tiny charms close as reminders of loyalty, courage, and love. As their paths collide, the line between ally and enemy blurs, and Nala must decide whether she's willing to fight not only the empire that caged her, but the part of herself that still longs for softness, love, and a crown she swore she'd never wear.

Because power isn't given.
It's taken.

And she's done waiting.