Starbound in Shadows (The Celestial Bonds #1)

Princess Adelina
I have been someone’s possession my whole life.

My brother took the throne when I was seven. For forty years, he has reminded me exactly where I belong, with pain, fear, and punishments no one dares question. Now he’s trading me to a prince I’ve never met, and my body is the price of an alliance.

So I run. I would rather drown in the Celestial Sea than spend the rest of my life wondering if the next man who claims to protect me will only build a prettier cage.

But the prince follows. And the strange pull I felt the moment our eyes met only grows stronger with every mile between us. I don’t know what it is.

I only know it keeps pulling me toward him, and I cannot tell whether it is leading me to freedom or into another cage.

Prince Kaedryn
I was sent south to collect a bride and forge an alliance.

I’m the Shadow Prince of Elyrion, heir to the throne, and I learned long ago that attachment is a blade you hand your enemies. I do not want a Celestial Bond.

The stars do not care what I want.

The bond wakes the instant our eyes meet, and when she runs, it drags me after her. I tell myself the pull is duty. I have always been good at lying to myself.

My magic reaches her in ways neither of us asked for, and I have never hated my own power more. Because someone broke her long before I found her. Every time she flinches, I wonder if fate has made me another monster.

Some bonds are written in the stars. Others are forged in shadows.

Starbound in Shadows is the first book in The Celestial Bonds, a dark fae fantasy romance featuring an unwanted Celestial Bond, a runaway princess, the ruthless prince she was promised to, and a dangerous magic neither of them can fully control.

Perfect for readers who love morally gray fae, political marriages, forced proximity, wounded heroines, possessive but conflicted heroes, and fated bonds that feel more like a curse than a blessing.

Contains dark themes including abuse, captivity, trauma, coercive magic, and dubious consent. Reader discretion advised.