Description

A crown cannot be inherited. It must be survived.

Indunna Sigmundsdottir was given to a political marriage before she was old enough to choose otherwise; a princess bartered for the hope of a male heir, bound to a man she’d never met, and left to hold a throne she was never meant to inherit. Six years later, she is still her father’s unwanted solution: a daughter in a court built for kings, surrounded by men waiting for her to fail.

Janis of Hammerfel gave up everything for a crown that was never his. He was promised purpose. He was given a cage.

With war gathering at Leifthasir’s borders and her father’s grip on the kingdom fracturing, Indunna must become what no one has allowed her to be: a ruler in her own right. But the higher she rises, the more dangerous Janis becomes—not as her enemy, but as the one person who might actually see her clearly.

Some alliances are forged in love. Theirs was forged in politics, desperation, and the gods’ cold silence. Now, with fire coming for everything they’ve built, Indunna and Janis must decide what they are willing to sacrifice, and whether their marriage is the cage that will destroy them, or the only thing that might save what’s left of the kingdom.