I'm Vincenzo Russo, the so-called Viper of Veridia, crowned in venom and expectation, trying to hold together an empire built on other people’s lies. Some days I think I’m still that kid watching my father fall; other days I’m the monster they made to replace him. And now they want me chained to her—the traitor’s daughter, my greatest weakness wrapped in a wedding dress. It’s almost funny, really, how a man who controls a city can’t control the way one ghosted kiss still ruins him.