Sayra von Lykken never wanted to be anyone's bride—especially not Emperor Kenji's. But when he conspires with Crown Prince Vander to murder the Acacean royal family, she makes an impossible her hand in marriage for her loved ones' lives. Now trapped in the Droden court with graphite shackles suppressing her majik, she must play the perfect bride-to-be while plotting revenge.
Sylven Astor was supposed to be protected by Sayra's blood oath, but when Emperor Kenji drags him to Droden, he vanishes. With their mental link severed and silence where his presence once lived in Sayra's mind, no one knows if he's alive, dead, or something worse.
Emrys Navarre watches his brother crown himself with their parents' blood still fresh on his hands. Branded a madman, stripped of his magic, and locked away, he has only one that his scattered allies can save Sayra and Sylven before Kenji destroys them completely.
Some chains are meant to be broken. Some countries are meant to fall. And some sacrifices demand vengeance.