My Constancy (23/29)

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-dealing art patron, the religious zealot, the paranoid commander. 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, loss, and the slow corruption of idealism.

Table of Contents

1. The Overlooked
2. Blood and Bread
3. What Sleeps Beneath
4. The Bargain
5. The Archduke
6. The First Lesson
7. Leverage
8. Natural Conclusions
9. The Patron
10. Art and Sedition
11. The Evidence
12. The Trial
13. The Saint
14. The Purges
15. Punishment for Sin
16. Mercy as a Blade
17. The Exile
18. The Vows
19. The Alliance
20. Vanished Heirs
21. The Council
22. Chaos
23. Tired Crowns