My Constancy
Princess Ilyra is the youngest and most overlooked of five royal children in a decaying empire. When a bread riot ends in massacre and her pleas for mercy are dismissed, she realises nothing will change from within. Then a foreign archduke arrives to court her - charming, attentive, and willing to teach her the art of intrigue. Under his tutelage, she learns to navigate the vicious politics of succession, dismantling her corrupt siblings one by one: the gambling addict, the drug lord hiding behind art patronage, the religious zealot who starves the poor, the paranoid commander with his black prisons. Each victory brings her closer to the throne - and closer to him. But power has a price, and the lessons she learns may cost more than she knows. A dark romance of ambition, manipulation, and the slow corruption of idealism.