Roksana is a poisoner living as a healer — a former assassin with forbidden magic, a sharp tongue, and a past that’s finally caught up with her. When her old master demands one last kill to gain her freedom, there’s just one problem: she’s already killed the War King.

He just refused to stay dead.

Scarred and furious, King Reynard should want her head. Instead, he pulls her into his life, his war, and the political games threatening his throne. He’s infuriating. Protective. Annoyingly noble. And he looks at her like she’s the answer to a question he’s been asking his entire life.

When his hand closes around her throat, and he calls her His Viper, it isn’t a threat.

It’s a promise.

But promises won’t save the family she’s built for herself, or shield her from enemies who want her magic.

When secrets threaten her new life, Roksana will have to choose: stand alone to protect herself as she always has, or trust the king she tried to murder — while she fights to save his kingdom.

Roksana’s burden was watching her king ride to war, leaving her with an impossible task: guard the capital at any cost.

As the King’s Shadow, she enforces his rule with forbidden magic and poisons that shift alliances overnight. Hidden behind the porcelain mask of the Deadly Nightshade, Roksana is the throne’s most lethal secret — and she is committed to protecting the only man who ever touched her heart.

But a silent threat capable of shattering the realm is festering in the city’s depths.

With King Reynard cut off by the tides of war and the court plotting a coup, Roksana must rely on the only family she has left: a fae courtesan who trades in whispers, a dwarf inventor whose genius uncovers the plot, and an assassin who always trusts her plans.

To save the kingdom and her king, Roksana must become the monster the world already believes her to be. She would rather lose her soul than the man she loves — and the family — she’s fought to protect.