“Marry me. Or I’ll kill you.”Princess Lysenne’s father has promised her to the kingdom’s most dangerous woman.Grand Duchess Valesse has the king’s signature, an army at her command, and no intention of letting her future bride escape.
Lysenne vows never to love her captor.But the woman who threatens her with a blade also tends her bruises. Behind every command and lingering touch, Lysenne glimpses a tenderness meant only for her.Then Valesse asks a question that changes everything.“Do you really not remember me?”A forgotten encounter binds them. A secret keeps them apart.When noblemen mock their engagement and Lysenne’s brothers publicly humiliate her, Valesse kisses her before everyone.For the first time,Lysenne wants the marriage she once feared.Then their carriage is attacked.Valesse steps outside to fight. When she returns, the princess has vanished.Lysenne awakens in an underground auction house. Strangers are bidding for her. Her royal name cannot save her.She once prayed to escape Valesse.Now she prays Valesse will come.Who sold the princess? What has Valesse been hiding? And when love brings them together, will the grand duchess offer Lysenne her freedom—or claim her forever as her bride?
