Deep within the forbidden palace, the queen gentl…

The sovereign of the Yan Shuo dynasty, Seraphina Montclair, was known to the world as the Dragon Blood Queen. She had pacified all within the four seas, yet could not evade the hidden arrows at her back. Her husband, Prince Consort Shen Yuan, under a mask of gentleness, wove a web of betrayal day and night. In this game where power was the wager, the sharpest piece on the board was her captain of the guard, Ronan Blackwood — a man of few words, willing to lay down his life for her. Tonight, after all the foul truths had been laid bare, Ronan Blackwood knelt within her bedchamber, not as a subject, but as a man trembling from crossing a forbidden boundary, awaiting the Queen’s judgment.