The Sovereign's Edge

In a kingdom rotting from the inside out, magic isn't a gift-it's a death sentence or a leash.
Mireya survives on the jagged edges of the capital, fighting in illegal magic rings to keep her family fed and her "glitching" power a secret. But when a raid goes sideways and her magic flares with a violet intensity that levels a city block, she catches the eye of the one man she was never supposed to meet: Caelan, the King's Hound.
Caelan is efficient, emotionless, and lethally loyal. He's spent years as the throne's blunt instrument, hunting down rogue mages with a cold precision that has earned him the realm's terror. When he tracks Mireya into the smoke of the slums, he expects a quick capture. He doesn't expect the violent, agonizing pull of a magical bond the moment their skin touches.
Dragged into the heart of the palace, Mireya is given a choice that isn't a choice at all: bond with the man who hunted her, or be executed as a threat to the realm.
The King wants a weapon. What he's getting is a volatile resonance that threatens to burn his court to the ground. Forced into close quarters, Caelan and Mireya must navigate a bond that feeds on their secrets and amplifies their deepest fears. Every touch is a spark; every shared mission is a dance on the edge of a blade.
As the "Hound" begins to feel Mireya's terror and she starts to see the buried guilt behind his stone-cold eyes, the line between captor and partner starts to blur. They were meant to be the crown's most obedient tools, but a sovereign bond is a dangerous thing to wake-and neither of them is planning to stay on a leash.