Crown of Ash and Bonds
Seraphina D’Lorien was raised to lead with grace, bound by duty, and destined to carry on her noble house’s legacy. As the Duchess of House D’Lorien and wife to the ambitious Alaric Vessant, she was meant to be a symbol of stability in a crumbling empire.
Instead, she was accused of treason, chained at the pyre, and sentenced to burn.
The empire turned its back. Her husband watched in silence. Her cousin Evelyne wept in public, but behind her tears was a smile no one else noticed. And only Evelyne knew that Seraphina was carrying a child.
That secret died in the fire. Or so they thought.
But Seraphina did not stay dead.
She awakens in her chambers, unburned, unbound, and alive. Everything around her is exactly as it was, except now, she remembers everything. The lies. The betrayal. The flame. And the child she never got to protect.
With no one aware of what truly happened, Seraphina pretends to resume her former life. But she no longer trusts, no longer hopes, and no longer believes justice will come on its own.
By day, she smiles at her husband’s side. By night, she stalks the empire’s shadows, gathering secrets, unraveling documents, and finding cracks in the system that tried to erase her. Her quest leads her to Caelan Vorenthal, the Warden General, an enigmatic, masked warrior with no tolerance for corruption and a past as shadowed as her own.
What begins as cautious cooperation becomes something deeper, as Seraphina uncovers a conspiracy stretching back years. Her marriage had been arranged not for love, but as a calculated maneuver. Her family’s fall was no accident. It was orchestrated. Her life, her title, even her pain were all used as leverage in a political game she never agreed to play.
And now, she is rewriting the rules.
Just as she prepares to move against the court, assassins strike. Seraphina survives, but the message is clear. Someone knows she is no longer a pawn. War brews in the corridors of power, and every ally she gains makes her more of a threat.
Through ink, blade, and bloodless subterfuge, Seraphina prepares to dismantle the empire that once watched her burn. One forged document, one ruined house, one false oath at a time.
The court believes she has been tamed.
But Seraphina D’Lorien is no longer theirs to control.
She is the flame reborn, and this time she decides who burns.
