A Sword Beneath the Crown

A SWORD BENEATH THE CROWN
Some vows protect a kingdom. Others destroy the people who keep them.

Queen Elyra Solvane has ruled Amreth for thirteen years, surviving political betrayal, a restless council, and relentless pressure to secure her kingdom's future through marriage. She has learned to make every sacrifice look like duty. But when the Kharzuun army advances on Dravengard and the Circle of Vessels turns its allegiance into a bargaining weapon, Elyra faces a crisis no crown can prepare her for.

Crownwarden Daevric Ashkavan has stood at her side for five years. He is her most trusted protector, the soldier who has never failed her, and the one man she cannot afford to love. Beneath his discipline lies a past he has spent twenty-one years trying to bury: the night Kesh Hollow burned, his father died, and an eleven-year-old boy made a promise that would shape the rest of his life.

He carries one sword openly. The other remains locked away in an iron chest beneath his bed-a blade forged by his father and bound to the worst night of his life. As long as it remains sheathed, Daevric believes he can remain the man Elyra trusts.

But war has a way of breaking what discipline holds together.

As the siege tightens and betrayal reaches into the heart of the kingdom, the control that has kept Daevric standing begins to fail. Elyra must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice for the man she loves-and what she will do when protecting him may mean protecting Amreth from him.

A Sword Beneath the Crown is an epic fantasy of slow-burning love, political intrigue, and loyalty tested to its breaking point. It is a story of duty and desire, of promises made in childhood, and of what love can-and cannot-save.