The Princesses of Ruin

He wants his bloodthirsty rival for a wife. She only wants the queen's head on a pike. Scarlett Bloodletter narrowly escaped her own assassination at the tender age of fourteen. Why had her mother, the queen, tried to kill her? Beats Scarlett, but she assumed it was because she was a nomaj.

A prophecy of ruin binds him to her. She wants nothing more than to escape. Lily has never been the delicate flower she was named after. She preferred silly pranks and dirty poetry to needlepoint and politics, which is why the queen sent her off to a “proper” royal academy. Now that her magic is developed and her manners are passable—barely—it’s time for her to return home and attract a powerful man to rule by her side. Except Lily doesn’t want a king or a kingdom. She wants freedom. And nothing feels more freeing than adventuring with her bodyguard, Alastair.

Royal secrets trade high on the black market, and being a quiet princess allows Alyse to hear many things in the palace. What she does with those pilfered confidences would have her mother fuming, but Alyse’s altruism is the only bright spot in her bleak existence outside the pages of her fantasy books. Yet that spot is being swallowed up by a depraved shadow that haunts her steps: her wretched fiancé.

Adrik is trapped by his unrequited love. Wounded by a dead woman who can never apologize for what she did to him. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever feel whole again, or at peace. But after catching the attention of a lusty pair of Spiders during Gareth and Cecillia’s date night, Adrik must decide if he’ll let his bleeding heart drain him dry, or if he can forget the pains of the past for one night and let these two beautiful women into his lab for some experimentation.

He wants nothing more than to be her everything. She can't stand the thought of being his void. Gareth knew the moment he saw Cecillia that she was the only woman for him. Her strength, her fire, her dedication... she pulled him in. Cecillia died a little inside when she thought Gareth might be the kind of man to show her love again. She can't have those thoughts so soon after the passing of her husband, can she? This sweet, short story is set in the Princesses of Ruin series following Gareth and Cecillia.

She’s a beacon of hope against a powerful queen. He’d steal the sun to save his people. Jasper's mission to overthrow a tyrant king in the south hinges on one thing: finding a woman of superior royal lineage to use as bait. Reina, the spirited fourth princess of Fynren, fits the bill. He knows he shouldn’t take her, that her fiery defiance is going to make his life a living hell, but something about her draws him in and won’t let go.