Lyra grows up knowing that two things make her different inside her own family: faerie blood runs through her veins, and one day she is expected to marry a Seelie prince whispered about as a monster. Her older sister is the favored human heir. Lyra is the political promise, the girl meant to secure something larger than herself. As a child, she fears Prince Kaelor before she even meets him. Years later, fear has become far more complicated. The arranged bond between them sits at the center of a realm divided by old grudges, unstable magic, and rulers who understand that marriage can be as useful as any weapon. Kaelor has a reputation for coldness, but reputations rarely tell the whole truth. Lyra has spent too long listening through doors, noticing what others miss, and learning that the stories adults tell children are often designed to keep power in the right hands. As wards begin to fail and dangerous creatures press against the boundaries between courts, the reasons behind her betrothal become harder to separate from the threats gathering around both kingdoms. Attraction grows where resentment should have been simpler. So does distrust. Family secrets, curses, fae politics, and the lingering question of who benefits from keeping Lyra afraid push her toward choices no princess was trained to make. She can accept the future arranged for her, run from it, or uncover enough truth to claim it on her own terms. But the mist hiding the old dangers is thinning, and someone has already begun moving pieces toward a conflict that could consume Seelie, Unseelie, and human lands alike. If Lyra wants a different ending, she will have to decide whether Kaelor is the monster in her story or the only person standing beside her when the real one arrives.
Lyra grows up knowing that two things make her different inside her own family: faerie blood runs through her veins, and one day she is expected to marry a Seelie prince whispered about as a monster. Her older sister is the favored human heir. Lyra is the political promise, the girl meant to secu...