The Traitors Tithe

Every debt is paid in memory. Hers is about to come due.

Six years ago, Senna Veir lit the lantern that betrayed the man she loved - and the empire made a monster of him for it. Now she forges tithe-relief in the capital's gutters, paying a penance no ledger records, while the Vessarine Empire runs on the Tithe: magic borrowed against the one currency everyone owns. Memory. The treasured kind. The empire always collects.

Then the rebellion asks the impossible: end the Tithe at its source. And the source has a face she last saw looking up at her signal light.

The Keeper of the Hollow Vault prices his bargains in the only coin Senna has left - herself. Thirty days as auditor of his failing ledgers, resident in his beautiful, terrible court. Her memories forfeit if she fails. He claims the hollowing burned the love out of him. He claims he keeps debts, not girls.

But the Vault keeps everything.

And some of what it keeps is her.

The bargain is a trap. The trap is a courtship. And the only way to free an empire is to pay the one price no traitor believes she deserves: forgiveness.

The Traitor's Tithe is book one of The Debtbound Court - a complete, HEA-guaranteed romantasy of second chances, dangerous bargains, forced proximity, and a morally gray love interest who has spent six years buying back memories of the woman who broke him. For readers who want their slow burn earned, their magic costly, and their grand gestures specific enough to hurt.

Content: adult fantasy romance, medium heat (two open-door scenes, consent-forward), war violence and grief on the page, no sexual assault. 18+.