The King's Decree

Survival keeps him alive. Helpful just cost him everything he can't afford to lose.

Survival has one rule for Nick Vance: never get attached to what can be taken from you. Helpful has a different rule: everyone deserves a sky. When a source node broke open and dropped six strangers into his hands, Helpful started winning.

Now the Guild wants its property back-and it isn't alone. Kaela keeps her tether light and her draw lighter, bleeding herself dry so Nick doesn't have to. Ashlen is drafting paperwork fast enough to keep the Crown from claiming what he risked everything to save, all while the calendar ticks toward a royal wedding that will make his choices hers to answer for. Then a foreign seal turns up on a Guild ledger-proof the enemy he knows was never working alone.

Nick built his barony on one law: no one touches what hasn't said yes. He's about to find out what that law costs when the people counting on it outnumber the teeth he has to protect them.

Can he hold the line for six strangers, two women, and a crown that's watching-or does someone get left in the dark to save the rest?