Sable Corven hears everything. Every lie. Every secret. Every heartbeat through a wall.
In the kingdom of Ardanthir, magic is classified, monitored, and controlled.Sable is classified Minor Talent. One ring on a silver cord. A low-level intelligence operative who sits in taverns and listens through walls and files reports that nobody reads.
She knows she is more than her classification.She has known since she was fourteen and shattered a window with her voice. But in a kingdom that ranks its mages like weapons, being underestimated is the only thing keeping her alive.
When a delegation from Vaelcross arrives and Sable is assigned to monitor them, she is paired with Commander Taran Valrath. A man whose gift is fire. Whose presence disrupts every frequency she has spent years learning to control. Whose orders come from people she does not trust.
He watches her too closely.
He stands too near.
And the temperature shifts every time he does.
But Taran is not the threat. Something older is moving beneath the surface of the alliance talks. A conspiracy that spans all four kingdoms, built on a form of magic that should not exist. A ritual that binds the soul and buries the will. And the closer Sable gets to the truth, the more she realises the people she serves may be the ones holding the knife.
Her magic is her weapon.
Her voice is her weapon.
The man she is falling for may be the most dangerous weapon of all.
One thing is certain: she is done being classified.
