The Master of Blades and the Poisoned Chalice by Andrian Vale
They murdered the Shadow. They never expected him to return wearing a noblewoman’s face.
Kaelen, the Crimson Hand’s legendary assassin, expects his final contract to purchase freedom. Instead, his own syndicate rewards fifteen years of loyalty with a poisoned chalice. Death should end his story—but he awakens years later in the weakened body of Elara of Valois, a young noblewoman trapped inside the kingdom’s gilded machinery.
For fifteen years Kaelen served the Crimson Hand as its most exact assassin. His final contract should have bought freedom. Instead, the syndicate pours him a poisoned chalice and calls betrayal mercy. Death is not the end: Kaelen awakens years later inside Elara of Valois, a weakened noblewoman surrounded by courtiers who consider her harmless and enemies who have already written her future.
To expose the architect of his murder, Kaelen must rebuild Elara’s body, survive the royal masquerade, and trace a ledger of ash through a conspiracy older than the current throne. But the borrowed life resists becoming a disguise. Elara’s relationships, obligations, and buried wounds begin to change the shape of vengeance itself. The Master of Blades and the Poisoned Chalice delivers assassin precision, gothic court intrigue, identity conflict, and a complete reckoning across fifty expanded chapters.
272 pages · PDF · $9.99
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