Elara's village sends her through the Veilgate as a sacrifice, all so the harvests will survive another brutal winter. Officially, the goddess chose her. Elara knows better. She is simply the easiest woman to surrender to a Fae king demanding a bride. She expects cruelty on the other side. Instead, she meets Kael. Prince, strategist, reluctant participant in a court full of dangerous rules, Kael is waiting beneath the ember ash with plans of his own. Their arrangement is supposed to be simple: play the roles expected of them, survive the politics surrounding the crown, and keep their true intentions hidden long enough to gain control over their futures. Elara has never been good at obedience, and Kael has never met a human who challenges him with so little concern for his title. Their battles of wit turn into trust, then into an attraction made more dangerous by the strange magical tether growing between them. The court is watching. Rival powers are circling. A wedding approaches under conditions neither of them fully understands, and the old stories behind the Veilgate suggest that human sacrifice and Fae generosity have never been as straightforward as the villages were taught. As Elara searches libraries and questions traditions everyone else accepts, Kael must decide how much truth he can risk giving her. Together, they uncover threats capable of turning a political marriage into a struggle for the future of more than one court. Elara crossed the gate believing she had been chosen to save a harvest. She may have walked into a game built around a crown, a bond, and a secret powerful enough to change the terms for everyone.
Elara's village sends her through the Veilgate as a sacrifice, all so the harvests will survive another brutal winter. Officially, the goddess chose her. Elara knows better. She is simply the easiest woman to surrender to a Fae king demanding a bride. She expects cruelty on the other side. Instea...