The Twisted Throne

A princess trades her sword and home for her starving kingdom's survival

Ithicana is bankrupt.

A princess trades her sword and home for her starving kingdom's survival

Ithicana is bankrupt. The Maridrinian invasion destroyed homes and lives, and King Aren has sold everything—including Queen Lara's jewelry—to keep his people fed. The only nation rich enough to save them is Harendell, and the Fifteen-Year Treaty promises Ahnna as a bride for Crown Prince William. Aren begs her to stay, but Ahnna refuses to break her word, knowing Ithicana's survival depends on this marriage. On the cliffs of Northwatch, Lara finds her and offers their mother's necklace—gold and gemstones shaped like Ithicana's islands. When Lara drops it over the edge, Ahnna lunges to catch it, revealing how deeply she still cares. Lara warns that Queen Alexandra of Harendell is the most dangerous woman in the north. Ahnna barely listens, eyes fixed on approaching Harendellian ships.

Amaridian soldiers disguised as Ithicanians attack the royal ship at Northwatch

The Harendellian royal vessel approaches Northwatch too fast—its crew is fighting for control. A mutiny, it seems, until Ahnna spots Amaridian soldiers climbing from wine barrels an Amaridian merchant vessel delivered hours earlier. Each wears an Ithicanian tunic, a calculated frame job designed to make it appear Aren's people attacked the prince. Ahnna leaps aboard the burning ship and cuts through the melee, searching for Prince William. She finds a tall copper-haired officer in a braided uniform fighting for his life against a wall of assassins. When the Amaridians set fuses to blow the ship, Ahnna parries his sword from his hands and shoves him overboard, diving in after him as the explosion tears the vessel apart. The pier is carnage, the alliance already bleeding.

The prince she saved is not the prince she's meant to marry

Underwater, Ahnna fends off sharks by swimming toward them with hand outstretched, asserting dominance until the predators veer away. She guides the prince through a submerged tunnel into Northwatch, only to find iron bars blocking the passage. Sitting on his shoulders in pitch darkness, she rigs explosive bottles against the mortar and blasts them free. They surface, stop the second Harendellian ship from attacking, and the crisis ends. Then Aren greets the man—and his eyes aren't the green of William's portrait. They're amber, the color of expensive whiskey. This is James, King Edward's illegitimate half-Cardiffian eldest son, sent because Queen Alexandra refused to risk the heir. Aren's reaction is immediate: Edward sent his bastard. Ahnna's carefully rehearsed introduction collapses before it begins.