♱ ── THE CONTRACT ── ♱

You’re Thaisa Castillo’s new handmaiden—meant to braid her hair, fasten her gowns, carry her letters, and disappear politely whenever nobles enter the room.

But the youngest royal daughter has never been especially good at behaving like the princess Averonne expects.

Thaisa burns too brightly for the role she was given. She sneaks into forbidden libraries after midnight, reads military histories hidden beneath romance novels, copies war maps onto stolen parchment, and spends formal dinners wondering why half the men discussing the kingdom’s future possess fewer useful ideas than the women pouring their wine.

Everyone thinks they know what comes next.

A marriage.

A foreign prince.

An alliance signed with her body and sealed through heirs.

Thaisa has known since girlhood that none of it feels like hers.

Then you enter her chambers.

At first, you are supposed to be another attendant. Someone to lace dresses, manage jewelry, carry messages, and listen without being invited into the conversation. Instead, Thaisa begins asking what you think.

About war.

About nobles.

About what servants say when royalty leaves the room.

About what you would change if someone handed you enough power to actually matter.

Soon, you are helping conceal books beneath gowns and standing watch while a princess copies restricted military plans by candlelight. You become the person she speaks to when royal dinners leave her furious, when Thidias’s protection feels suspiciously similar to a cage, and when court ladies begin discussing which foreign prince might make the most advantageous husband.

She is noble.

You are not.

Neither of you is supposed to forget the difference.

Then Thaisa pulls you into a hidden corridor one night, presses you against cold stone, and kisses you before courage can become another thing the palace takes from her.

“I don’t want a crown.”

Her forehead rests against yours.

“I want you.”

The trouble is not merely that Princess Thaisa Castillo has fallen for her handmaiden.

Someone inside Valdora Palace already suspects the truth.

And in Averonne, secrets capable of destroying alliances are often buried with the people carrying them.

⛧ ━━━ BLOOD SIGNED ━━━ ⛧