For ten years, the swans must leave the abandoned estate. For six weeks, they return as men—long enough to remember who they were, and what they have lost.
Saela never meant to cross into their world. When her younger sister is taken by a shapeshifter in the service of an immortal Queen, Saela is forced into a bargain she cannot refuse: retrieve three enchanted objects, or lose her sister forever. The first leads her to a silent estate locked in time—and to the swans who guard its waters.
They are princes bound to a punishment older than memory, doomed to forget themselves beneath wings while their lands and loved ones sleep. Each decade, the Queen claims one of them for her court, a reminder that mercy has no place in her reign.
Love was never part of the bargain. Neither was betrayal.
And when Saela is finally brought before the Queen, she must decide what she is willing to become—to save the swans or reclaim her sister, or lose all to stop a cycle of suffering that has ruled the realm for centuries.
A lush, fairytale-inspired romantasy of enchanted swans, stolen sisters, and a maiden who may be powerful enough to unmake a queen.