Before the spring dies

Valarr Targaryen was never meant to survive the spring.

Yet he did.

They said the spring had brought new life to the Seven Kingdoms.

They were wrong.

For Prince Valarr Targaryen, spring had brought only death.

It had been a year since he had buried his first wife, Keira of Tyrosh-the woman he had loved, the woman whose memory still haunted the halls of his heart.

But grief was a luxury a future king could not afford.

Valarr was the heir to the Iron Throne.

And an heir without an heir of his own was a danger the realm could not tolerate.

So, before the first anniversary of Keira's death had even passed, Valarr was commanded to marry again.

His bride was Viserra Rosewood, a seventeen-year-old girl who had done nothing to deserve a husband who did not want her.

Viserra enters the marriage hoping that perhaps, with time, she can make her husband love her.

And then came Prince Jacaerys Targaryen.

Valarr's cousin.
Aerys Targaryen's son.

Charming, reckless, and always looking for his next amusement.

When Aerion offered him a wager-one that challenged Jacaerys to make the new wife of the heir fall for him-Jacaerys could hardly refuse.

After all, what was a little game between princes?

He only had to make Viserra Rosewood fall in love with him.

That was all.

But games become dangerous when hearts are involved.

And Jacaerys Targaryen was about to learn that the easiest woman to win...

could become the hardest woman to lose.

Because Jacaerys never expected to fall for Viserra.

Viserra never expected to betray her husband.

And Valarr never expected to realize that the wife he never wanted might become the woman he cannot bear to lose.

But before the spring dies-

someone will lose their heart.

And someone will lose everything

Because spring does not last forever. Some things are destined to die before the spring does.