The spare heir must work with an enemy prince to discover who murdered her twin in this gripping slow-burn romantasy.A fated mates monster romance featuring an orc king, a portal to a brutal fantasy realm, and a heroine who refuses to kneel.
This beautiful trade paperback edition features a deluxe jacket with silver foil on the front and a full-color interior illustration.
Thena came to FantastiCon to survive the weekend with minimal human interaction and maximum sarcasm. She didn’t plan on catching the attention of a seven-foot orc painted in war green—or the way her pulse stutters when he looks at her like she’s already his.
Viggo Klausson isn’t a cosplayer. He’s the High Chieftain of the Eastern Orcs, stranded in the human world while searching for the mate fate promised him. The moment he scents Thena, the bond snaps tight.
Then a portal drags her into Korule—a fractured kingdom where women are rare, power is carved in blood, and claiming a mate can start a war.
Thena refuses to become anyone’s prize. An ancient magic awakens inside her, and suddenly she’s not just the king’s fated mate.
She’s dangerous.
Viggo may be steady. He may be patient. But when enemies circle, he does not hesitate to bare his teeth.
He found his mate.
As the younger twin, Merridan has never minded being the “spare” to the Rothian royal throne. She knows her brother, Von, will be an excellent king, and she’d rather devote her time to the Goddess, faithfully using her magic to send deceased spirits from the holy lake to the Afterworld.
When the unthinkable happens and her brother is murdered, she is certain their rival kingdom, Nova, is to blame. After all, they worship a false deity and use their magic to toy with necromancy. But when the Goddess halts the investigation of Von’s death, Merridan takes matters into her own hands, using a forbidden Novian ritual to speak to her brother’s ghost.
The last thing Merridan expects is to raise the wrong ghost. Now she’s bound to Phoenix Darragon, the arrogant crown prince of Nova—who was murdered the same night as Von. The prince makes Merridan a deal: if she takes his spirit to Nova to be resurrected, he will help her find her brother’s killer.
But uncovering the truth about the murderer means discovering Phoenix’s secrets, too. As the attraction between Merridan and the prince becomes undeniable and the threat of war builds, she must decide whether finding the truth is worth its cost if it means her beloved relationship with the Goddess is changed forever.
