Elia, a girl with hair like spun gold, is chained by her wrists in the highest chamber of a silent, forgotten tower. To the world, she is a cursed plague; to her captors, she is merely an experimental vessel kept alive by painful, injected nutrients. Her only escape is her mind, where she clings to a stolen, fading memory of a happy family walking hand-in-hand beneath the sun, imagining herself as the beloved child at the center. But when a cold, enigmatic imperial inquisitor breaks into her prison to weaponize her supposed curse, Elia is dragged into a treacherous court of shadows. She must learn to navigate her sudden freedom and her growing, dangerous attraction to a man who views her as a tool. Can a girl who has only known chains ever survive the blinding, suffocating grasp of the empire's light, or will her desperate yearning for warmth lead to her ultimate ruin?
