A marked courtier. A guarded envoy. In a glass conservatory, their secret vows ignite a battle against a whispering rival who weaponizes touch and rumor. To save the crown, Cerys must choose truth over fear.

Cerys has learned how to survive the winter court the way everyone does: by keeping her face smooth, her voice quiet, and her heart locked behind perfect manners. But one mark on her wrist makes her impossible to ignore, and the palace treats it like proof that her choices are not her own.

When Alaric arrives as a steady, watchful envoy with a talent for moving through danger without becoming it, Cerys expects another court game dressed as protection. Instead, he offers something rarer than safety: space. In the moonlit conservatory, beneath glass and drifting river air, their clandestine meetings become the only place where truth feels stronger than rumor.

Then a rival with velvet grace begins to weaponize touch, mirrors, and whispers, turning private moments into public traps and using fear like a key that fits every lock. With the crown’s legitimacy threatened and an innocent woman nearly turned into a mouth for someone else’s voice, Cerys must choose what the palace least expects—honesty spoken in open air, loyalty without ownership, and a love that refuses to be used.

In a court where secrets are currency, Cerys and Alaric will learn that the most unbreakable oath is the one no whisper can forge.