The Tyrant's Gryphon and the Thorn in My Side

I, Jasker Korvits, am a simple man. As the last Sky-Binder in the kingdom, my life is dedicated to mending the great winged beasts of the mountains, a duty I inherited from my father. My ordinary morning shatters when royal soldiers drag me to the capital to treat the one creature no one can approach: Queen Roksana's personal war-gryphon, Skov. They call her the Iron Queen, a ruler whose heart is said to be as cold and barren as the Northern Wastes she conquered. Her temper is legendary, her cruelty whispered in every tavern. But when I see her with the ailing Skov, I glimpse not a tyrant, but a terrified woman desperate to save her only friend. I am her last hope, and my success will earn me any reward I desire. Yet as I work, I find myself thawing the permafrost around her heart, a dangerous and intoxicating process. I'm falling for the monster of the stories, and she's starting to trust me. But the gryphon's sickness isn't natural, and the 'reward' for its cure is a trap tied to the very betrayal that forged her into the Iron Queen. Can I save the beast without unleashing the curse that will destroy the woman I've come to love?