“He was ordered to destroy her. Vespera Laurent has spent twenty five years believing her mother is dead and her father simply disappeared. Then a mysterious photograph arrives, exposing a connection between her family and the most powerful dynasty in the country a connection someone has killed to keep buried. Caspian Valerion is the heir to that dynasty, and his father gives him one simple command: get close to Vespera, discover what she knows, and make sure she never uncovers the truth. But Vespera is nothing like the helpless woman he expected. She is intelligent. Defiant. Impossible to control. And the closer Caspian gets to destroying her, the harder it becomes to deny the woman he is falling for. When Vespera discovers that the man she trusted entered her life under a deadly order, everything between them shatters. But betrayal is only the beginning. Because her mother's disappearance was a lie. Her father's disappearance was a lie. And the Valerion dynasty was built on a secret powerful enough to destroy them all. Now Vespera must uncover the truth before the family that buried it silences her forever and Caspian must choose between the empire he was born to inherit and the woman he was commanded to destroy.”