Ember and Ermine: The Mercenary and the Runaway Crwown

In the golden kingdom of Valdenmere, Princess Seraphine Aurelle has never met a consequence she couldn't outrun. Spoiled, reckless, and blessed with impossible luck, she follows mysterious enchanted lights into the Morveil - an ancient, dangerous, living forest - and vanishes. Her heartbroken mother, Queen Evelyne, does the unthinkable. She hires a mercenary. Caelion "Cael" Voss is cold, precise, and professionally unfeeling, a master of observation who can dissect a soul with a glance. He takes the contract without sentiment, only for Seraphine's impossible luck to clash with his ruthless efficiency. To retrieve the runaway princess and save Valdenmere from a political crisis, Cael must navigate not just the Morveil's perils, but the princess's stubborn will, all while confronting his own buried past.