A Throne of Thorns

Cordelia Ashworth is one candlelit hand away from losing everything her grandmother spent a lifetime building, and the smiling devil across the card table, Lord Marcus Sterling, knows it. With her family's fortune, reputation, and future on the line, Cordelia faces a choice no daughter of nobility should ever have to make. When the mysterious Prince Edmund Thornwood appears with a scandalous offer, she trades her independence for a single chance at salvation. Swept into the glittering, treacherous world of the royal court, where Queen Margarethe pulls strings like a puppeteer and King Aldric's ambitions cast long shadows, Cordelia soon discovers that Edmund's bargain comes wrapped in dangerous desire. Princess Isadora watches her brother's fascination with cold interest, loyal Sir Geoffrey offers quiet warnings Cordelia cannot afford to hear, and Sterling's smile follows her like a ghost. Every whispered promise carries a hidden blade, and every stolen moment with Edmund draws her closer to a truth that could topple two thrones. Caught between vengeance and surrender, between the man who ruined her and the prince who may save her, Cordelia must play one final hand, because in a court where love is a weapon and trust is the rarest currency, the next card she turns over could be her heart.