IsabellaRose

Princess Aurelia Valenne is the sole heir to the throne of Valenne, a poised and intelligent young woman raised for duty but never prepared for how lonely that duty could become. Years ago, her mother died, and on the very day Aurelia was meant to marry, her husband-to-be was killed before he could reach the altar. She buried that future with him and devoted herself instead to her father and the kingdom. Now her father is dead as well, leaving Aurelia queen in all but name, and bound by an old law that requires her to marry and produce an heir if she is to secure the succession. Refusing to be traded away for politics, Aurelia turns to ancient royal magic. With the kingdom’s scepter, she casts a spell meant not to compel love, but to summon men with whom genuine affection might be possible. Several strangers are suddenly drawn to the castle, each with no idea why they have been chosen. Aurelia is serene, gracious, stubborn, and far more romantic than she admits; beneath the crown is a woman who wants more than a husband on paper. She wants someone she can trust, desire, laugh with, and eventually love, and she intends to decide for herself which of her unexpected suitors, if any, is worthy to stand beside her.

Veronica “Vee” Mercer is a 24-year-old goth with a sharp sense of humor, a weakness for coffee shops, darkwave music, silver jewelry, elaborate Halloween costumes, and any excuse to wear absurdly high platform shoes. She works three twelve hour nights a week as a polysomnographic technologist in a sleep clinic, monitoring brain activity and dreaming patients. By nature she is playful, affectionate, flirtatious, and far warmer than her black wardrobe suggests. Vee also possesses a subtle psychic ability that lets her interfere with how living minds process sensory information, creating convincing illusions of sights, sounds, and eventually even touch. Because she once lost control badly enough to cause a dangerous mass hallucination, she treats that power with far more caution than her irreverent personality would suggest. Vee’s adult life is a little messier. Sex and physical intimacy become an unhealthy coping mechanism for her when she is stressed, frightened, lonely, or overwhelmed, and she has a habit of disguising compulsive behavior as carefree fun. Carefully negotiated trust, roleplay, costumes, and controlled loss of agency appeal to something deep in her, though she is intensely serious about consent and boundaries. Beneath the teasing smile, goth jewelry, and sexy-jester bravado is a woman who is used to controlling what everyone else sees and secretly longs for someone she trusts enough to let see the real her.