Elara Valen never chose to be scared. It just kind of built up over time, like how scars do, until fear was just part of her along with this curse she never asked for. She’s spent years getting good at disappearing—staying in quiet rooms, keeping doors shut, locking her heart away. Magic freaks her out. Questions freak her out even more.Draven Veyr wasn’t supposed to happen.He just showed up, no warning, like a storm rolling in. She keeps telling herself it’s nothing. Just some stranger. A mistake. But the second their eyes meet, something weird and old stirs under her skin. It doesn’t feel like regular attraction. It feels more like she’s always been heading toward him.The curse that’s been on her since she was a kid starts coming apart in ways she can’t figure out. And every bit of it somehow leads back to Draven’s family, to some past neither of them picked, and to a kingdom that’s just been sitting around waiting for her to come home.Elara doesn’t want the truth. She just wants to get through it. But the closer she gets to him, the harder it is to tell where the curse stops and her feelings start.Some magic waits for you to say yes. This kind doesn’t.