The crown is a cage, but her blade is the key. Exodus is the Autumn Court's most lethal paradox: a prince gifted with the terrifying power of mental manipulation who craves nothing but the silence of a common life. Bound by duty and a father's cold expectations, he is prepared to marry for politics and suffer for the throne. That was the plan until he met Azalea. She was the Courtless assassin sent to end his life, yet she became the only heart he ever truly claimed. Then, without warning, he broke her. Six years of icy silence shatters when Azalea returns to the palace. Hired by the King himself for a suicide mission to eliminate a rival monarch, she must inhabit the same halls as the man who discarded her. The price is too high to refuse; the proximity is a torture she didn't anticipate. Azalea came for blood and gold, but as buried secrets of the Autumn Court begin to surface, she realizes the mission is a trap, and her past is a lie. In a kingdom built on deception, the most dangerous thing isn't the contract she signed, it is the man she still craves. Betrayal has never tasted this sweet.