Beneath a crown of Dust

"I am your guardian, Julian. Not your peer, and certainly not your lover."

Sent into secret exile at fourteen, Prince Julian was a boy with a target on his back. For four years, his only world was a secluded manor on the edge of the kingdom and the woman sworn to protect his life. He was the Scepter-the future of a dynasty.

Elara is a disgraced knight with a heart of ice and a blade that never misses. Her task was simple: keep the Prince alive until his eighteenth birthday, then hand him over to the crown. She didn't account for the boy growing into a man whose gaze followed her every move. She didn't account for the way her pulse jumped whenever he stood too close.

Now, Julian is eighteen. The carriage is waiting to take him back to a life of golden cages and a political marriage. Elara is ready to say goodbye, hiding behind the safety of "status" and "duty."
But Julian isn't the little boy she used to command. He's a man who has spent years wanting the one thing he's forbidden to touch. And before the sun rises, he will make his choice:
The Throne he was born for... or the woman who taught him how to bleed.