A crown forged in magic. A kingdom divided by blood. An assassin hiding in plain sight.
Selene Vale possesses no magic whatsoever. In a realm where your bloodline's magical aptitude dictates your worth, she is considered entirely disposable. But Selene has spent years turning survival into a science. Through hyper-vigilant observation, she can read a fighter’s breath, balance, and intent seconds before they strike—a lethal talent she masquerades as magical precognition. It is the perfect lie, and it earns her a position on the elite personal guard of her ultimate target: Crown Prince Darius.
Darius is the supreme commander of the Dominion’s armies and the most feared spatial mage in the realm. To the resistance that trained her, he is a tyrant who must be eliminated to break the system. To Selene, he is her ultimate target. She needs only to become indispensable, wait for the perfect shadow, and strike.
But the palace is not as simple as she was taught. When an internal coup fractures the court and exposes an intricate conspiracy to manufacture a brutal war against ordinary citizens, Selene is forced to fight alongside the prince she came to kill. As space twists and blood spills, the lines between hunter and prey erode. Darius is reading her just as deeply as she is analyzing him, uncovering the machinery beneath her illusions. With the Dominion collapsing from within, Selene must make an impossible choice: execute the mission she was born to fulfill, or trust the enemy she has grown to understand.