Studying magic, an intoxicating princess, and a devoted wife encouraging him to explore everything the academy has to offer...

For my wife, Isabelle, I gave up my dream of becoming a mage. A price I paid gladly. But now, years into our loving marriage, she’s the one pushing me to attend the Academy.

This is where the queendom's elite hone their power. I expected the disdain of the nobles for a commoner like me. I did not expect the Academy’s greatest challenge.

And that challenge has a name: Lucretia. She’s the Crown Princess. Blonde, blue-eyed, and fair-skinned. Perfect, they say. I can't disagree.

So why are her eyes fixed on me?

She's young, powerful, and untouched, but above all she's not used to being denied. She sees something in me that she's determined to possess, and the simple gold band on my finger won't stand in her way.

But the perfect princess isn't my only danger. There's my own loving wife, encouraging me to explore everything the academy has to offer—temptations included. And then there’s Juliet, the dark-haired heiress with her own claim on the future queen.

Now I’m trapped between my devotion to the mother of our daughter, the intoxicating obsession of a princess who is determined to have me, and a dangerous rival who wants me gone.