The Banished Heiress Became Queen

Isolde Thornwood, the eldest legitimate daughter of Baron Thornwood, inherited her mother’s rare silver-white healing magic—and was born with striking snow-white hair. At the grand Harvest Festival banquet, Isolde eagerly expects Kael, the man she has loved for two years, to publicly announce their engagement. Instead, Kael chooses to marry her stepsister, Lenora. Lenora openly mocks and humiliates Isolde before the entire gathering, while Isolde’s own father, Baron Alden, watches in cold silence and allows the humiliation to continue. After the banquet, Isolde’s stepmother, Morana, sends guards after her, planning to assassinate her in a remote forest and disguise the attack as the work of bandits. But Odric, Crown Prince of Valderis, happens to be nearby. Disguised as a wandering mercenary while secretly investigating evidence of tax evasion and a private-army rebellion among the nobility, he intervenes and saves Isolde. Together, Isolde and Odric capture one of the assassins and bring him back to the castle for questioning. Before the prisoner can expose the truth, however, Morana uses dark magic to poison him, destroying their key witness. Morana then twists the story against Isolde, accusing her of having an illicit relationship with the mercenary and conspiring against her own family. Believing Morana’s accusations, Baron Alden strips Isolde of all inheritance rights and imprisons both her and Odric in the dungeon beneath the East Tower. There, Morana personally confronts them and unleashes forbidden dark magic to finish them off. Just in time, Sir Damon, commander of the kingdom’s knights, storms the dungeon with his forces and rescues them. Isolde is stunned to discover that Damon is actually her mother’s long-lost brother—her own uncle and a blood relative she never knew she still had. Morana’s dark-magic conspiracy is finally exposed, but the danger is far from over. A crucial ledger containing evidence of a rebellion involving the Thornwood and Ashford families is stolen during transport by a mysterious force of dark magic and carried toward the royal capital. With the immediate threat defeated, Odric finally reveals his true identity as Crown Prince, while Isolde is recognized as the rightful heir to the Thornwood lands. As peace briefly returns, Odric kneels before Isolde with a ring and asks her to marry him. She accepts, and the two become officially engaged. The next morning, the group sets out for the royal capital, where Isolde is to enroll in the Royal Academy of Magic, an extraordinary school built upon a floating island. There, she will finally learn to master the healing magic she was born with. Upon reaching the capital, they are greeted by the waiting Queen. But as Isolde prepares to step into the floating academy and begin a new chapter of her life, the dark force that stole the ledger remains hidden somewhere in the distance. And a new threat is already beginning to take shape.