cryshvale
Prince Caelan of Valedain has lost everything-his kingdom, his freedom, and, if King Aldric has his way, his life.
Dragged before the conquering king in chains and sentenced to die, Caelan does not face death quietly. He begs. He bargains. He fights with everything he has for one more chance to live.
But with the executioner's axe already falling, Princess Elena does the one thing no one in the court expects.
She stops it.
Elena has spent her life being trained to rule. She is feared for her sharp judgment, respected for her ruthlessness, and notoriously uninterested in every prince and nobleman placed before her.
Until Caelan.
There is something in the conquered prince's desperate determination to live-and in the honesty she sees in his eyes-that she cannot ignore.
Saving him is only the beginning.
With a defeated kingdom still restless, a court watching their every move, and enemies who would rather see the last prince of Valedain dead, Elena and Caelan must discover whether what began with an act of mercy can become something neither of them expected.
A conquered prince. A ruthless princess. A love neither expected.