Hot, ragged breaths burst between her lips. The frantic gasps were the cost of running without a single break since she had fled the castle. Because she had never made a habit of physical conditioning, her thighs were rigid, screaming as if they would tear, and her knees throbbed with a searing, buckling pain. Her bare soles, long since free of the discarded shoes, were a mess of scraped, pricked, and bleeding wounds. But she could spare no glance for her injuries. Her vision

Every day she reflects upon is a day she regrets. She was named Vanessa Rohawk, after an angel. Her dazzling beauty was also that of a celestial being. When she suddenly falls into ruin, accused of treason overnight, the one who appears before her is Grand Duke Vinkart—a man she had never dared to hope for. "Vanessa Rohawk. Will you come with me?" He is salvation, light, and love. She swears that as long as she can stay by his side, she can endure any hardship, that even deat