Before We Were Flames: A Bondspire Prequel (The Aetherfall Saga)

He entered the masquerade to expose a kingdom built on lies. Instead, he found the girl who made him forget why he came.

Masen has survived hunger, cold, and every lie the Triarchs fed their people. He knows better than to believe in beauty, especially the kind in marble halls.

He slipped into the Triarchs’ masquerade with one expose the kingdom’s rot and the rulers who gorge themselves while the rest of Slythara starves.

He expects silk, excess, and arrogance.
He does not expect her.

Seraphina Velastra.
The copper dragon.
The governor’s hidden granddaughter.
The girl who disappeared for ten years.

She is nothing like he imagined the Triarchs. She moves like someone who has been in chains her whole life, but when he looks in her eyes he sees untamed fire and curiosity begging to break free. One stolen moment is all it takes for Masen to see that she is who he has been waiting for.

He came to break the kingdom.
She came to survive it.
Neither of them expected to find someone who sees through their mask.

Before they were flames, they were strangers beneath chandelier light, and one forbidden dance changed everything.