by Alex Wei
The queen of robots, Siverin of Utarid, was not born — she was made in a lab as tradition dictates. The only human female in her world, designed to be the smartest, the most unbreakable, and forever tethered to her throne by Crown Jewels charmed to kill her should she ever betray the code. She can't have a family. She can't form attachments. She knows the Council of Utarid would rather let her die than let their secrets leave with her. But when the Priestess of the Silver Sister swears her to protect a magical child who may be the only answer to an imminent planetary collapse, Siverin agrees. She expects a difficult diplomatic mission — navigating the secret agendas of Vertanon's dangerous queen and the cold suspicion of its Crown Prince, Kael, missing for ten years and recently returned with more secrets than answers. What she can't anticipate is what the mission demands from the inside. What raising a child together does to two people so unlike each other, yet so committed to goals much larger than their own lives. What it costs a woman built to feel nothing to discover that she can. What will the queen of robots do, once she realises her inner architecture is cracking? And what will the wayward Prince do when he finds himself one step from everything he craved but thought impossible?
