“In my first life, poverty was my only teacher. I learned to read a man's greed before he spoke and to navigate systems designed to crush the weak. Now, I am Lady Elowen Ashford, a noblewoman sold by her own family to the formidable Duke Alaric Ravenshollow to pay for sins I didn't commit. In the Kingdom of Stalla, power isn't just held in gilded thrones, it is traded in the shadow economy beneath them. From the silk-draped salons where noblewomen sharpen their fans like daggers, to the soot-stained alleys of the black market, I am no longer a victim. I am the auditor.”