He loved her badly before he knew how to love her well.
Emmeline Beauvau has spent her life healing Lucianea's sacred springs and pretending Prince Aristide Cadian's oldest cruelty no longer matters. Then black roots break through the First Spring, a sacred white stag collapses at her feet, and a living mark coils around her wrist.
Aristide arrives with armed guards and an accusation: the water court is poisoning his forest. Proud, jealous, and trained to hide every vulnerable thing, he has wanted Emmeline since childhood and wounded her whenever wanting became too visible.
When their magic forms a dangerous bond, the childhood rivals are forced into Cadian Forest, where a court of leaves and knives is waiting to turn an ancient covenant into a weapon.
To save both kingdoms, Emmeline and Aristide must uncover who corrupted the Root-and-Water Vow, complete a rite built from buried truths, and decide whether a bond created by old law can become a love freely chosen.
The closer they come, the more the covenant reveals: his jealousy, her hurt, the desire neither can hide, and a betrayal rooted deep beneath the crown. If they fail, the spring will be claimed, the forest will rot, and the prince may become the very weapon that destroys them both.