Gilded Vows

I have twenty-three days before they cut my throat to renew a two-hundred-year-old promise. So I'm going to walk right back into the building that wants me dead. The Hemlock Court chose me. Made it law, sealed it in wax, set a date. Running only proved they could find me anywhere, so Lucian and I are done running. He claimed me. Ward of the Thorne bloodline, protected by the Court's own ancient charter, which means I get to live inside the gilded cage of the people who murdered my sister, smile at their galas, and dig for the one thing I still don't have: a name. I have her voice on a recording. I have a ledger that calls her death administered. What I don't have is the three seconds of static where the killer's name should be, an initial that still fits two men I'm not sure I can stop trusting. Lucian says he can buy us time. The vow in his chest says the price is his life. The Patron says everything has a tithe. And somewhere in this beautiful, rotten place, they're holding Margot, the masked figure who let me live is still watching, and the man I love is being backed into a corner with only one way out: handing me to them. Every vow here is gilded. Every gilded thing is a chain. Gilded Vows is Book Two of The Hemlock Court, a five-book dark academia romance saga for readers 18+. It ends on a cliffhanger; the happily ever after is earned in the finale. Full content note inside.