A Gilded Game (Dragon Queen #1)

I was never meant to be the next Dragon suitor...

For years, my sister Astrid and I prepared for the day she might be chosen to compete for the Dragon Prince's hand. She had the ambition. Our family desperately needed the match.

But at the Choosing Ceremony, they picked me instead.

Now I must survive the trials of the Jarlton and win the Prince's favour if I have any hope of salvaging our family's crumbling fortunes, even if I never wanted his attention in the first place.

Worse still, surviving the royal court means enduring Kael: my infuriatingly handsome tutor, whose job is to help me win another man's hand. He's arrogant, secretive, and hiding something behind that maddening smile.

Falling for him would ruin everything.

Astrid

I was supposed to be the Dragon suitor. Instead, my sister has taken my place alongside my closest friend, Toren. Now they must compete through the trials of the Jarlton for the Prince's heart while I watch from the sidelines.

But if I'm being truthful, there's something I've always wanted more.

Magic.

At last, it's running through my veins, giving me the chance to become what I've dreamed of all my life: a powerful runemaker.

But the magic I've coveted comes with a price.

Toren and I are suffering from the same mysterious affliction that has haunted generations of runemakers before us. And as strange whispers begin to challenge everything I've been taught about the runes, I start to wonder whether the power our kingdom reveres is hiding something far darker.

As Mae is drawn deeper into the glittering games of the Dragon court and Astrid searches for the truth behind her magic, two sisters begin pulling at different threads of the same carefully woven lie.

And some truths were never meant to survive the light.