[Cursed be anyone who dares to touch her. Cursed be anyone who dares to hurt her. Cursed be anyone who slanders her name. And, above them all... cursed be I, for having learned to love her.] Thalia Roem Ghirta never knew the love of a family. Born of a forbidden union and rejected even within her own palace, she learned to survive in silence—hiding her loneliness behind sharp words. Until, during an unexpected event, her life intersects with that of a strange boy named “Kane.” Arrogant, foul-mouthed, and absurdly annoying, he claims that she now owes him her very life. And, against her will, Thalia ends up being the one responsible for bringing him into the palace. But the more time Thalia spends with that boy, the more a question begins to trouble her: what, after all, is someone like him really looking for within the Empire?