The Succession Game: The False Princess Vol 1
THREE COMPETITORS. ONE CROWN. BLOODSHED.
At twenty one, Yorith has survived the Imperial Palace by becoming smaller than the shadows that mock her. Born of Emperor Elrion and a brothel worker, she is tolerated but not acknowledged, raised beside her legitimate sisters only to be constantly reminded that she does not belong.
When the Iron General — Emperor Elrion, who has neither male heir nor male descendant, falls to a grotesque, unknown illness that blackens his veins and draws him toward an undignified death, the ambitious highlords prepare to tear the empire apart.
Instead, Elrion tears it first.
He dies by the executioner’s blade and leaves behind a final command: his three daughters will compete for the crown, and at the completion of six months, one daughter shall be crowned ruler of Malvorin.
Thalin, the firstborn, polished and cold, is certain that the empire is already hers. Nalea, the seductive nymph-like lastborn, smiles and swears she wants no part in power while hiding a fatal secret of her own, and Yorith, the illegitimate stain that shocks the court by announcing her interest to vie for the crown of Malvorin.
To win, Yorith must outmaneuver her sisters who gladly plot her death, nobles who would use her, and a court that would merrily watch her fall to her end. She allies with a forgotten knight, a freedom fighter whose identity could destroy her claim, and a disgraced duke who is more than he seems.
Stakes are high. Secrets are unraveling. A war might not be too far. Because, in the game of succession, survival is not permanent victory.
It is simply the price of staying alive long enough to see who betrays you first.