The Half-Hearted Queen

Nym is a captive in the palace of King Nicosia, who holds her as a political pawn while the kingdoms of Cansere and Sesta fight a bloody war. She never told Prince Renn she loved him, and that feeling is one of several things she now has to hide from her captors.

The bond between Nym and Renn runs deeper than romance, because it is magical as well. Nicosia knows it and is hunting for Renn's weakness, hoping to use it to take both kingdoms for himself. Inside his walls, Nym meets horrors and secrets she did not expect, and she has to find a way out and get back to Renn.

Renn faces a hard choice of his own. A dangerous prophecy is unfolding and the succession of kings is in doubt. The throne depends on a political alliance, and that alliance means giving up Nym. If he fails to unite the kingdoms, Nicosia will destroy them all.

This is dark fantasy and the second half of the Shattered King duology, so it concludes the story begun in the first book. It is a forbidden romance set against war and court politics, with imprisonment and a cruel ruler keeping the mood tense and shadowed.