Bound to the Crown

She was raised to wear a crown. He was trained to stand in her shadow. Princess Avianna has spent her entire life preparing to marry a prince and secure peace between two kingdoms. Everything about her future is decided, controlled, calculated, inevitable. Except for him. Caylix is her shadow guard. Bound to her since childhood by a rare magic that lets him hear her thoughts, he knows her better than anyone alive. Every fear. Every doubt. Every secret she’s never spoken out loud. And he was never meant to be anything more. Until their bond begins to change. What was once steady and controlled turns into something dangerous, an undeniable pull that strengthens the closer they are… and fractures into something unbearable when they’re apart. Nightmares turn real. Trust is shattered by illusion. And the more they try to fight it, the more it demands from them. As her wedding approaches and the pressure to become queen tightens around her, Avianna is forced to face the one truth she cannot control: The only man who has ever truly known her… is the one she is forbidden to choose. But Caylix is not just a guard. And when the truth of who he is comes to light, everything she was meant to become begins to fall apart. Because loving him may be the very thing that starts a war… or the only thing that can end one.