Synopsis
Lirien Kane was never meant to hold this seat. At thirty-one, she inherited the role of Court Astrologer from her dead father, and the court has neither forgotten her youth nor forgiven it. Her work is precise, her hands stained with ink, her loyalty to the numbers absolute. Until the night three methods that should have disagreed all whisper the same impossible date: the hour the king will die. In the Kingdom of Velloran, a regnal date written down is a sentence already pronounced. The dates have always been right. The dates have always killed. Now the only man who can read what she has written is King Aldric himself, waiting alone behind a closed door, asking her to speak a truth the chancellery never prepared him to hear. Caught between duty and a danger she cannot name, Lirien must decide how much to reveal to the one man her stars have already condemned. A slow-burning tale of forbidden tension, court intrigue, and a woman who knows too much to stay safe.
