The second novel of the bestselling Bridge Kingdom series, now in a stunning deluxe hardcover edition, featuring: • Designed sprayed edges • A deluxe jacket with new cover art • A full-color illustrated book case with new character art • An interior black-and-white map (included in previous volumes) • Designed endpapers • A spine design that will stretch across future deluxe hardcover editions in the series In this sweeping, sizzling fantasy romance, one woman fights to win back her throne, her people, and the love of the man she’s betrayed--from the #1 A queen now in exile as a traitor, Lara has watched as Ithicana is conquered by her own father, helpless to do anything to stop the destruction. But when she learns her husband, Aren, has been captured in battle, Lara knows there is only one reason her father is keeping him alive: as bait for his traitorous daughter. And it is bait she fully intends to take. Risking her life on the Tempest Seas, Lara returns to Ithicana with a plan not only to free its king but to liberate the Bridge Kingdom from her father’s clutches, using his own weapons: the sisters whose lives she spared. Yet not only is the palace inescapable, there are more players in the game than Lara ever realized: enemies and allies switching sides in the fight for crowns, kingdoms, and bridges. But her greatest adversary of all might be the man she’s trying to free--the husband she betrayed. With everything she loves in jeopardy, Lara must decide who--and what--she is fighting for: her kingdom, her husband, or herself. Includes a bonus chapter from Sarhina’s point of view, also in the paperback reissue Don’t miss any of Danielle L. Jensen''s Bridge Kingdom series: THE BRIDGE KINGDOM • THE TRAITOR QUEEN • THE INADEQUATE HEIR • THE ENDLESS WAR • THE TWISTED THRONE ...

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Danielle L. Jensen is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Fate Inked in Blood, A Curse Carved in Bone, and the Bridge Kingdom, Dark Shores, and Malediction series. Her novels are published internationally in twenty-two languages. She lives in Calgary, Alberta, with her family and guinea pigs.

Leseprobe
**1

Aren**

He d been blindfolded for thirteen days.

Shackled, too, and occasionally gagged, but despite the persistent burn of the ropes sloughing the skin of his wrists and the foul taste of the fabric shoved in his mouth, it was the endless shadow of the blindfold that was driving Aren, the former king of Ithicana, to the brink of madness.

For while pain was an old friend, and discomfort almost a way of life, to be confined to what sights his own mind could conjure was the worst sort of torture. Because despite his most fervent wish it were otherwise, all his mind wanted to show him were visions of her.

Lara.

His wife.

The Traitor Queen of Ithicana.

Aren had more pressing matters to consider, the foremost how the bloody hell he was going to escape the Maridrinians. Yet the practicalities of that need faded as he examined every moment with her, trying and failing to decipher truth from lie, reality from the act ­though to what end he could not say. What did knowing if any of it had been real matter when the bridge was lost, his people were dead and dying, his kingdom was on the brink of defeat, and all of it the result of him trusting in ­loving ­his enemy.

I love you. Her voice and face filled his thoughts, honey hair tangled, her azure eyes bright with tears that carved their way through the mud smearing her cheeks.

Truth or lie?

Aren wasn t sure which answer would be a balm to the wound and which would tear it wide open again. A wise man would leave it alone, but God knew he had no claim to that particular attribute, so around he circled, her face, her voice, her touch consuming him as the Maridrinians dragged him, kicking and fighting, from his fallen kingdom. Only once he was off the seas and beneath the heat of the Maridrinian skies did he get his wish: the blindfold removed.

Wishes were the dreams of fools.

**2

Lara**

Lara hadn t known Eranahl had a dungeon.

But there was no other word for the dark cell built into caverns beneath the island city, the stone walls slick with mildew and the air stagnant. The steel bars were devoid of even a hint of rust, because this was Ithicana, and even the things that were barely used were well maintained.

Lara lay on her back on the narrow cot, the thin blanket she d been given doing little to ward off the damp chill, her stomach tight with hunger because she was subjected to the same rations as everyone else on the island.

This wasn t how she d hoped things would go.

Rather than convincing Ahnna of her plan to rescue Aren from her father s clutches, all her display of martial skill in the council chamber had done was see her slapped in irons, dragged through the city streets, and tossed in this cell. Those who brought her food and fresh water refused to speak to her, ignoring her pleas to see Ahnna.

And every day that passed was another day that Aren remained a prisoner in Maridrina, subjected to God knew what sort of treatment.

If he was even still alive.

The thought made her want to curl in on herself. Made her want to scream with frustration. Made her want to break free of this place and try to free Aren herself.

Except she knew that would be folly.

She needed Ithicana.

If only she could make them realize that they needed her, too.

**3

Aren**

Good morning, Your Majesty, a voice said as the blindfold was removed from Aren s face.

Aren blinked rapidly, tears streaming down his cheeks as the sun seared into his eyes, blinding him as surely as the sweat-­stained fabric ever had. Gradually, the burning white receded to reveal a manicured rose garden. A table. And a man with silvered hair, su