She was never supposed to be part of the bargain.When her aunt's debt comes due, a debt far too large to be paid with money, she is offered as payment to a man whose name is spoken only in whispers.He gives her a room.Beautiful clothes. Everything she was never allowed to have.And a locked door.He tells her she is free to leave whenever she wants.She knows better.Because some cages have no bars.Some cages are made of gold.And the most dangerous thing about hers is the man holding the key.

For a thousand years, **Lord Evander Blackmoor** has guarded the royal bloodline. He has protected its rulers, buried its enemies and watched generations of kings turn to dust—while he remained unchanged. Immortal. Unfeeling. Unbreakable. And completely in control. Twenty-two-year-old **Princess Lyra Valenwood** has spent her entire life beneath Evander’s protection. He decides where she goes, who may approach her and which dangers she is permitted to know about. To the kingdom, he is her sworn guardian. To Lyra, he is the forbidden man she has never been able to forget. Then, on the night of her coronation, the royal family is massacred. Evander rescues Lyra and carries her to Blackmoor Keep, an isolated fortress hidden beyond the mortal realm. There, his authority is absolute. His soldiers answer to him. The ancient magic obeys him. And until the assassins hunting Lyra are found, she cannot leave without his permission. Evander insists that his control is necessary to keep her alive. But locked doors are not the only things keeping Lyra inside the fortress. The sacred oath binding Evander to her bloodline is changing. His protection is becoming possession. His legendary restraint is beginning to fracture. And the immortal guardian who has denied himself everything is no longer willing to deny the way he wants her. As rebellion spreads through the kingdom, dangerous attractions ignite around them: a female assassin is forced into an alliance with the rebel prince she was ordered to kill, an immortal warlord becomes obsessed with Lyra’s widowed aunt, and a palace seer falls for the knight whose death she has already witnessed. But the greatest threat may be the secret buried inside Evander’s oath. Because he was not commanded to protect Lyra. He chose her before she was born. And if the prophecy is true, the only way to restore her throne is for Lyra to surrender her heart—and her freedom—to the immortal man powerful enough to save her kingdom or bring it to its knees. **He has guarded her all her life.** **Now that the world believes she is dead, there is no one left to stop him from keeping her.**