Valerius didn’t look at the priest. His gaze remained fixed on Elara, sharp and unreadable. "I take the bride the House of Thorne provides," he said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble.

The doors swung open, and the cold mountain air rushed in, signaling the start of her new life in a frozen northern fortress, where secrets were buried deep beneath the snow.

He was her sister’s betrothed. Or he had been, until her sister vanished into the night with a common soldier, leaving Elara to pay the debt of a broken alliance.