Cost Of Fealty (Aldric Novella - 2)

Ser Aldric Vane rode south with a princess who cannot love him and a body covered in scars she gave him. Now they have arrived at the capital where King Aldous the Fourth holds a court full of eyes and blades and Elara Aldermere must pretend to be nothing more than a minor lady paying respects to the crown. But her brother knows more than he should and the court is a place where secrets last as long as candlelight. Elara will do what she has always done. She will use what she has. And what she has is a knight who will kneel on broken glass and call it devotion. She will take lovers for politics and for pleasure and for the look on his face when she summons him afterward. She will let him stand guard outside doors that should never close on her and she will open those doors and show him what is behind them. And somewhere in the gilded prison of the capital the question is not whether Aldric will break. It is whether she will let him survive the breaking.