Edging Through the Empire

A summons she cannot refuse. A desire that could be her ruin. Elinor, a baroness with a title as hollow as her stomach, is a ghost in her own crumbling manor. Her life has been a relentless lesson in loss. Now, a letter sealed with the Emperor's crimson wax offers a scandalous escape: be his muse at the Imperial Court. It is an order, not an invitation, and a trap she is desperate enough to walk into.
Emperor Valthor is no mere ruler; he is a living myth, a man whose power is absolute and whose forbidden appetites are the stuff of fearful whispers. Elinor expects a tyrant, but finds a man more dangerous and tantalizing than any story could describe. He does not want a simple muse to inspire him. He wants to unravel her, to possess her, to test the very limits of her soul in a game of power and surrender.
Pulled into a world of gilded masks and deadly political intrigue, Elinor must navigate a court where every smile hides a dagger and a rival sorceress seeks to destroy the empire. Valthor's obsession becomes her gilded cage, his touch a mixture of agony and ecstasy. He promises to give her everything, but she soon learns that the price of being his desire may be her very self. In this epic and steamy dark fantasy, a woman with nothing to lose meets a man who has everything to gain.
But when his dark secrets threaten to shatter them both, will she conquer his heart or become another victim of his relentless power?