The Princess Beneath the Eclipse

Crown Princess Maris Roden has forty-two days to prove she is not the catastrophe her kingdom has feared since childhood. If she fails, the man assigned to uncover the truth is also the man legally required to execute her. When an ancient eclipse declaration marks Maris as the source of a deadly magical disaster, a sword is placed at her throat before the royal court. Its wielder is Soren Rook, the kingdom's chief judicial oath-severer—a cold, exacting man with the authority to end both dangerous contracts and dangerous lives. But when the city's protective barriers begin to fail, Maris discovers something impossible: the magic branded into her body may not be coming from her at all. Someone has tampered with the kingdom's covenant system. And someone has woven Maris's royal blood, Soren's judicial authority, and the approaching eclipse into a trap neither of them fully understands. Forced to investigate together, Maris and Soren possess the two skills needed to unravel it. She can see and repair the hidden structure of magical contracts. He can sever the clauses that should never have existed. Yet every discovery makes their partnership more dangerous. Maris cannot forget that Soren may still be ordered to kill her. Soren cannot ignore the growing evidence that the law he has served may be part of the weapon aimed at her. Distrust becomes reluctant cooperation. Cooperation becomes trust. And trust begins turning into something far more dangerous when the man holding the power of life and death over her becomes the one person who refuses to take her choices away. As the eclipse draws closer, political intrigue, sabotage, buried records, magical oaths, and royal secrets threaten to tear the capital apart. To survive, Maris must prove that she is not the monster the kingdom created around her name—without becoming dependent on the man whose sword still stands between her and freedom. A slow-burn romantasy filled with forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers tension, forbidden royal romance, magical contracts, court intrigue, mystery, and high-stakes fantasy danger. When the eclipse finally comes, can Maris trust the man sworn to judge her life—or will the law force his blade against her after all?