Perispa (first draft for feedback, mostly unedited)

"When the letter written in blood arrived at the boy's house, he was not frightened. No, he had been expecting this for the better part of his life.
When he read the messy, gruesome scrawl, he felt a piece of himself melt in relief. Not a happy relief, but the resigned kind of relief that one feels when something horrible finally happens."

She sells memories. He steals them. She runs from a tragic past, and he won't let himself forget.

Trying to survive in the remains of the fractured kingdom of Perispa, Alyssia Carmina makes a living selling a tincture that gives people vivid recollections of what their lives were like before the War. Until her business-and her life-is interrupted by a handsome face who knows more about Alys than any other living person, despite having never met her before: Alwyn Vasili, the prince of Perispa with secrets and ulterior motives aplenty.

When the decisions of someone from both Alwyn and Alys's pasts threatens things they love, they're forced to band together, even when it means facing parts of themselves they've been spending years burying. And along the way, the two become irrevocably connected.

But when everything comes to the surface, betrayals and secrets are revealed, will this connection be enough to save them?