Chapter One

Survival is a tangled web when you can’t resist the enemy.

Posing as the princess on a diplomatic mission to gain control of the legendary Land of Transcendence, bastard royal Lark Banla spends the journey entertaining reckless fantasies of escaping the convoy and her duties as a reluctant decoy.

She wouldn’t mind never hearing a word about the Land of Transcendence again – that treacherous territory awash with mysticism that once stole a piece of her sanity.

The convoy being ambushed by an enemy from Sarsyth was not the escape she had planned.

She dares not let on she isn’t the true princess, or her value to her captor will vanish. But she’s painfully aware her king won’t pay the ransom for a bastard decoy, and the brutal reputation of Sarsyth warns she must avoid reaching her impending destination at all costs.

Unfortunately, one touch from her captor sends both of them into a lustful spiral that blurs the lines of their hellbent objectives, a mating-bond that reveals a truth about Lark’s lineage that changes everything.

A truth that might lead her right back to the treacherous place she’d sought to escape forever.

In a world of ruthless opportunists, unpredictable magic, and mating-bonds mucking up political intrigue, will Lark find her true place in the world? Or will being mistress of her own destiny get muddled by her unbridled affection for the enemy?

If the madness that whispers from the Land of Transcendence doesn’t tear her asunder first…