Escaping the Beast's Gilded Cage
By @john1208
Nahiri expected a brutal death when her wicked family forced her to be the substitute bride for Khagan Vashkar, a monstrous warlord trapped in a coma who supposedly needed a bride's life-force for luck. Instead, she wakes up in an impossible place - free-falling into the inverted, floating fortress of Qal'at. When her dangerously kind heart prompts her to heal the sleeping beast, Vashkar instantly awakens. He doesn't torture her; he crowns her. Showered in legendary weapons and absolute authority, Nahiri becomes the most spoiled wife in the empire. Her greedy family, seeing Vashkar's immense wealth, is easily tricked into signing away their entire fortune just for a chance to void the marriage contract - leaving them utterly destitute.
But this pampered life is a deadly trap. Vashkar’s clingy, obsessive protection isn't love - he knows Nahiri is the reincarnation of the ancient Queen Istaru, and he is hoarding her to use her soul as a living battery for his war-machine. With a double-crossing spymaster as her only dubious ally, Nahiri must use the very arsenal her 'doting' husband gifted her to blast her way to freedom. Can she escape the beast's suffocating protection?
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