The Rose Bargain

In 1471, on a battlefield slick with blood, a woman in a bone-white gown walked out of the tree line.

In 1471, on a battlefield slick with blood, a woman in a bone-white gown walked out of the tree line. She promised the desperate King Edward the throne, slashed his palm, and sealed the bargain. Across the field, Henry VI dropped dead. Edward was crowned—and died twenty-four hours later. The woman, Queen Moryen of the Others, took the English throne at Eltham Palace. No sword could be raised against her. Immortal and uncrossable, she has ruled for nearly four hundred years. Her subjects kneel on Sundays to make bargains—trading toes, memories, fingers for gifts of beauty, talent, or land. Every deal has its price, and the queen always wins.

Searching for her missing sister, Ivy collides with a prince

Ivy Benton hasn't slept in eight days. Her older sister Lydia vanished without explanation, and the police say she eloped or died—neither of which Ivy believes. She sneaks out at midnight to leave Lydia's childhood necklace at the base of a tree near Kensington Palace, hoping to trigger the faerie doors she read about as a child in a forbidden storybook. A guard's shout sends her running. She trips on a loose stone, splits her temple on the curb, and wakes inside a carriage belonging to Prince Emmett, the queen's rakish human stepson. He presses his coat to her bleeding wound and calls her pretty. She throws it back at him. That same night, a constable drags Lydia home—filthy, barefoot, hollow-eyed—whispering only that her bargain wasn't worth it before sleeping for three days.

A prince needs a bride, and the cost of entry is everything

Three months after Lydia's return, the Benton family is drowning. Lydia can't remember her bargain or her disappearance. The scandal has destroyed their social standing, and Ivy's mother confesses they'll lose the house within a year. At the Pact Parade, Ivy wears her sister's altered gown and borrowed slippers that pinch. Then Queen Mor makes a stunning announcement: her son, the fae Prince Bram, will select a bride this season. Any girl who enters and isn't chosen must remain unmarried forever. Where others see catastrophe, Ivy sees her only leverage—being a suitor guarantees invitations, restoring her family's place in society. She signs the blood contract first, slashing her palm and scrawling her name in crimson. Bram wraps her bleeding hand with his silk handkerchief and heals it with a rush of inhuman warmth.

The poorest girl's shoes become her greatest advantage The queen's first elimination is a maypole dance on the sodden lawn of Kensington Palace. Silk slippers sink into muck within the first rotation, and…