Secrets of Dagome
Enemies to lovers dark fantasy romance where the poison worked but the king survived. Slavic court intrigue. Forbidden magic. Obsession that burns both ways.
Enemies to Lovers Dark Fantasy Romance with Slavic Intrigue
Welcome to Secrets of Dagome. If you have been looking for enemies to lovers dark fantasy romance with proper stakes, a morally grey heroine who poisons first and asks questions later, and a king whose survival makes everything worse, you found it.
Roksana was trained by an assassin brotherhood. She hides forbidden magic in a dwarven kingdom and takes contracts that keep her alive. Reynard is the war king of Dagome, feared across the continent, rebuilding his shattered kingdom with blood and strategy. She had orders to kill him. The poison worked. He survived anyway.
What grows between them is not soft. It runs part vengeance, part obsession and entirely unsafe for both of them. Reynard wants to find the woman who almost killed him. Roksana wants her freedom. Neither gets what they bargained for.
Secrets of Dagome is not a why choose romance. This is a single-couple dark romance trilogy with one heroine and one hero. The tension is enemies to lovers in the truest sense. They genuinely are at war with each other for a significant portion of the first book. The shift happens slowly and costs them both.
The world draws on Polish, Ukrainian and Slavic court traditions. The politics are layered. The magic ties to poison, forbidden arts and old grudges. Dwarven kingdoms, Slavic war councils and underground assassin networks drive the plot alongside the romance. If you came from The Cruel Prince, Kingdom of the Wicked or The Priory of the Orange Tree looking for something with Eastern European grit and romance that earns its heat through genuine conflict, start with Poisoned Kingdom.
Poisoned Kingdom
When her old master demands one last kill to gain her freedom, there is one problem: she already killed the War King. He 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 is infuriating. Protective. Annoyingly noble. And he looks at her like she is the answer to a question he has been asking his entire life.
When his hand closes around her throat and he calls her His Viper, it is not a threat. It is a promise.
But promises will not save the family she built for herself, or shield her from enemies who want her magic. When secrets threaten her new life, Roksana has 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.
King’s Shadow
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 fought to protect.
Queen’s Gambit
Wraith of Lilies
What Makes Secrets of Dagome Different from Other Dark Fantasy Romance
Most enemies to lovers dark fantasy romance shortchanges the “enemies” part. The characters bicker for three chapters and then fall into bed. Roksana and Reynard are genuine adversaries with incompatible goals and every reason to destroy each other. The hatred is structural, not performative. When it shifts, you feel the weight of what it cost both of them to let their guard down.
Roksana is not a passive heroine trapped in a king’s court. She is an active assassin with her own network, her own agenda and her own forbidden magic that she keeps hidden from everyone, including Reynard. Her agency drives the plot as much as his does.
The Slavic setting is not decorative. Dwarven metallurgy, Slavic political marriages, poison traditions from Eastern European folklore and the interference of old gods shape every plot beat. Readers who want a fantasy romance where the world feels lived-in rather than wallpapered will find that here.
The romance is dark. Possessive. Obsessive on both sides. The power shifts back and forth. If you want safe and sweet, this is the wrong shelf. If you want a romance where two dangerous people circle each other until the cost of staying apart exceeds the cost of giving in, Secrets of Dagome delivers.
Trigger Warnings
We appreciate that everyone has a different level of sensitivity and may be triggered by different topics. It is up to your discretion whether you can handle the content in our books.
The books are intended for a mature audience of particular interests. They contain a certain amount of coarse language, graphic sex scenes in MF pairings, possessive dynamics, power play and dark themes including scenes of death, physical violence and domestic violence that you might find triggering.