The Forbidden Ache

Book-1 of The Forbidden Ache Series. In the high-altitude court of Caelum, power is usually measured by how much air you can claim and how many enemies you can strike down. Prince Agnos does neither. He is quiet, physically slight, and lacks the steel-edged charisma expected of a future ruler. To the court, he’s a disappointment; to his father, he’s a political pawn. But Agnos carries a secret—a volatile, raw power that hums under his skin, something that feels less like a royal gift and more like a curse waiting to break him. The only person who knows the weight of that secret is Commander Valerius. As the kingdom’s top general, Valerius is everything Agnos is not: a master of the skies, devastatingly beautiful, and forged in the heat of a thousand battles. Their relationship is the only thing keeping Agnos grounded, a quiet defiance played out in candlelit rooms and stolen glances. That fragile peace shatters when the King announces Agnos’s engagement to the Princess of Giakai, the kingdom of the earth below. It’s a marriage designed to bury old blood-feuds, but for Valerius, it’s a death sentence for the man he loves. While Agnos is forced into the stifling rituals of a royal wedding, Valerius finds out something dark about Agnos.