When It Started

​"Some stories don't begin where you expect. Some begin with a blade to the throat and a secret that could burn a city to the ground."

​Rose Carter is the crown jewel of a family built on secrets and silver.

Elegant, lethal, and draped in red silk, she has been trained to view the world as a chessboard-and

Alex Harper is the only player she can't seem to checkmate.

​Alex is everything Rose was taught to hate: a man from the "other side," gritty, relentless, and far too good at seeing through her carefully constructed masks.

Their families have lived in a state of cold war for decades, held together by a fragile treaty and the mysterious power of the blue roses.

​But when a single choice shatters the peace, Rose and Alex are forced into a dangerous game of survival.

In a world where every glance is a weapon and every touch is a betrayal, they must decide if they are each other's greatest downfall-or their only hope of making it out alive.

​Two families. Three blades. One choice that changes everything.