Crown of Coils: The serpent prince, the blue-eyed omen, and the first dawn

A serpent prince forged in cold flame. A blue-eyed soldier raised as an omen. A river that remembers every vow ever broken. When the priests of the City of Sky move to lock the world inside a false sun, the Deep sends up its fiercest heir-and the two enemies discover the only way to survive is to become the bridge no one asked for and everyone needs. Kael has the eyes the temples fear: sky-bright, prophecy-stained, useful to men who like their miracles shackled.
He's spent a lifetime proving steel and stubbornness are more than any curse. Saitheon, crownless prince of the Deep, was trained to believe control is mercy and winter is wisdom. Their first meeting should have ended in blood. Instead, a breath-link saves a life and ties two futures together with a thread that burns quietly-a bond that punishes distance with a fever the Deep calls the Sleeping Fire.
As the Great Seal grinds toward completion and the river itself catches fire, Kael and Saitheon are forced from skirmishes into open war: breaking the Blue Gate, turning armies with a single kiss of command, cutting a shadow-marriage that would have bound two realms in lies, and awakening an ancient Choosing Blade that serves only truth. In a world where oaths have taste (salt if true, sweet if false), where steel remembers lies, and where light can be counterfeit, their vow must be exact or the bond will devour them both.
Enemies become allies; allies sharpen into something far more dangerous. The soldier who was meant to be sacrificed chooses whom he will live with-and die beside. The prince who was trained to be a weapon learns to bare the scales over his heart and let another hand decide the rhythm there. Together they craft a light that doesn't eat blood: cold flame braided with sky eyes, a new dawn bright enough to show what everyone is doing-saints and traitors alike.
Expect intimate stakes wrapped in epic scale: court intrigue and canal ambushes, river magic and glass-bright sorcery, ritual kisses that move battalions, and a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance that refuses to hide. When the priests open a door of false day and the river burns, confession arrives not in a chapel but under falling embers: I choose you. The kiss that follows isn't ceremony-it's ignition.
Read if you love:. Enemies to lovers, slow burn, m/m romantasy. Political fantasy, court/coils intrigue, found family (chaotic captains, deadly counselors). Dual POV, lyrical prose with momentum, battle scenes that end in tenderness. Magic systems with rules: vows have flavor; the Sleeping Fire punishes broken bonds; a blade that cuts lies before it cuts steelContent & tone: Adult romantasy with violence, peril, religious manipulation, and sensuality (not explicit).
Themes of consent, chosen family, dismantling harmful rites, and learning to be the kind of ruler who doesn't demand sacrifices to keep the lights on. Series: Book One of Crown of Coils. The war for two realms becomes governance in the aftermath-their living bridge must hold. Shadows gather for the next move: if the bridge breaks, the Sleeping Fire wakes not as fever but as flood. The river remembers.
The light they make together refuses to lie. When the false sun finally gutters and the city hears itself again, two men stand at the water's edge-hands joined, breath steady, choosing each other before victory, after victory, and every morning that follows. This is not the end; it's the first dawn.