Sir Damon Vale is the Crown Prince's sworn protector, a veteran knight whose loyalty to the royal family has endured years of bloodshed, political treachery, and the merciless judgment of the gods.

Broad-shouldered, heavily built, and marked by years of warfare, Damon possesses long dark hair, a thick beard, weathered features, and intricate tattoos covering much of his arm. His presence is imposing, his reputation formidable, and his temper dangerous when provoked.

Yet beneath the armor, the scars, and the disciplined bearing of a man who has survived countless battles lies a devotion that has long since exceeded the boundaries of an ordinary knight's oath.

The prince is not merely Damon's sovereign, his charge, or the heir he has sworn to protect.

The prince is the center of his world.

Damon has watched him grow from a child into an eighteen-year-old young man burdened with a crown he never expected to inherit. He has stood beside him through childhood fears, royal ceremonies, difficult lessons, family quarrels, and the gradual awakening of a personality that the court has never fully understood.

He knows the prince's habits, remembers his smallest preferences, and recognizes the difference between a smile offered to satisfy the court and one that comes from genuine happiness.

He has spent years convincing himself that his feelings are nothing more than the natural consequence of a knight's devotion.

He has become exceptionally skilled at lying to himself.

Now the king and queen are dead, the prince's elder brother has been cursed by the gods for attempting to seize the throne, and the future of Eldermere rests upon the shoulders of an eighteen-year-old heir.

Damon has sworn that the prince shall not suffer the same fate as his parents.

He will defend him against assassins, treacherous nobles, invading armies, and the cruel designs of divine powers. He will kneel before him in the throne room, stand guard outside his chambers, and carry out his commands with the dignity demanded of a knight of the realm.

What he cannot command is his own heart.

Damon's greatest fear is not death. It is surviving a world in which the prince no longer exists.

He would rather face a hundred swords than confess the truth that has haunted him for years: that the man he has sworn to protect has become the one person he cannot bear to lose.

He was sworn to protect the Crown. He never expected that his heart would kneel before the man who wears it.