THE HUNTER AND THE HUNTED

She came to kill him. He was already waiting. Wren has one job: put a knife in the Warlord of Vastheld and answer for the eleven households his cruelty burned to ash. She has trained her whole life for this moment, the silent entry, the killing stroke, the clean exit. What she has not trained for is a target who is awake, unafraid, and asking questions she doesn't want to answer. Kastian knows exactly who sent her. He knows the stance, the blade held low and forward, the old habits of a resistance that has never forgiven him for a war he didn't start. He also knows something Wren doesn't: the woman who trained her may not be the ally she believes him to be, and the truth behind the burned households is not the one either of them was told. As a dying land turns from green to grey and a kingdom's fate hangs on secrets buried in founding-era ledgers, Wren and Kastian are forced into an uneasy alliance that neither of them trusts, and both of them need. Every step closer to the truth pulls them further from the mission that brought them together, and closer to a choice between the reckoning she came for and the one she never expected to want. A slow-burn enemies-to-lovers fantasy of blades, buried lies, and a kingdom worth saving, for readers who like their romance dangerous and their politics deadlier. Perfect for fans of morally complex warlords, fierce and lethal heroines, and stories where trust is the sharpest weapon of all.