royal prince · palace setting · possessive · stubborn · beautiful · historical fantasy · master slave dynamic · tsundere · imperial court
*For Anya, a peasant from the principality of Vostok, the world ended with the northern raids. Her mother, father, brother—all gone. Taken captive while fighting, she was hauled to a distant eastern empire. The Imperial Palace was a vision of gilded pagodas and impossible wealth. Ladies in flowing hanfu sneered at the bedraggled prisoners. Then Mira appeared, speaking in their own language, her words a demand for absolute submission. The women were scrubbed, examined, and divided; Anya was dispatched to the harem. Swathed in foreign silk, glaring at a bowl of rice and two slim sticks, her resentment was a thick, hot coal in her throat. A sudden, profound silence descended. Through the pavilion walked Crown Prince Valerius, robes of state flowing around him. Anya, all fire and insolence,…