The Glass Crowned Decoy. Borrowed Crown, #1

In a kingdom where a face can be stolen from the dead, the most dangerous lie is the one everyone needs to believe. Liora Dayne has spent her life surviving in the shadows of the palace, unseen, unheard, and hiding a forbidden magic that could get her killed. But when the royal court is shaken by a secret too explosive to reveal, Liora is dragged from the servants' halls into a world of crowns, knives, and carefully polished lies.
Forced to wear a queen's image, Liora must learn the language of power before power learns how to destroy her. Every smile has meaning. Every silence has witnesses. Every noble in the palace is hiding something. And the longer she sits near the throne, the more she discovers that ruling is not simply about blood, birth, or law, it is about who is willing to pay the price of truth. Beside her stands King Renan, a grieving ruler whose quiet mercy may be either his weakness or his greatest strength.
Across the court waits Lord Vey, a brilliant noble with dangerous secrets, old loyalties, and motives no one can fully trust. Around them, the kingdom of Arvayne trembles on the edge of civil war, where assassins move behind familiar faces and even the dead may still serve the crown. Rich with royal intrigue, forbidden magic, hidden identities, political betrayal, and a fiercely compelling heroine, The Glass-Crowned Decoy is a sweeping historical fantasy of deception, survival, and the cost of becoming more powerful than the lie you were forced to live.