The Story

Nineteen-year-old Kaia Noctryn always knew she would inherit her House.
She never expected that day to come so soon.

Now her father is dead, and inheritance alone isn't enough. To keep House Noctryn, Kaia must survive the Succession Trials, where the heirs of the Great Houses compete to earn the right to lead. Their final ranking will determine who one day wears the crown.

The other heirs have spent their lives preparing. Kaia hasn't.

She's clever, determined, and beginning to suspect that someone at the Riverset Court doesn't just want her to fail.
They want her dead.

Worse, she's been bound by an alliance she never agreed to. Riven Vael, the kingdom's most formidable heir, is cold, disciplined, impossible to read — the last person she should trust, and somehow the one she can't stop noticing.

As rival Houses close ranks and every Trial raises the stakes, Kaia must survive a court where every alliance has a price, every mistake is remembered, and every victory paints a larger target on her back.

Surviving the Trials is only the beginning.
In Riverset, the hardest lesson isn't how to win.
It's learning who to trust.