Summary
After five years as the temple’s Akarna, she served faithfully while hiding her love for the crown prince. He promised his heart was hers alone, yet offered only the empty title of concubine—a political marriage would secure his throne. Refusing to endure such humiliation, she chose to leap from her carriage as it raced toward a cliff. Waking in an unfamiliar place, she finds herself in the empire’s most forbidden forest, a sanctuary for those society has cast out and forgotten.