Novels by Priceless Praise

Three days after the wedding, Darius Kane sat across from his father in the family's private study, the numbers on the slate between them worse than they had been that morning, and worse still than the morning before that."Explain this to me again," Corwin said. His voice stayed quiet, but it was the kind of quiet that had made grown men sweat through their collars in this very room for thirty years. "How does a family that has controlled the western shipping lanes for forty years lose them in a matter of days?""I don't know." Darius pushed the slate across the desk, frustration cutting through his usual composure. "The contracts were bought out from under us through a logistics broker we've used for over a decade. By the time our legal team noticed the routing changes, the paper had already changed hands twice more. We can't trace ownership past the third layer. Every lawyer we've hired hits the same wall in a different jurisdiction.""And the Voss logistics venture?""Collapsing a

The Kane estate did not glow like the promotion hall had. It burned.Every window on every floor was lit, gold light spilling out across the manicured grounds, servants moving along the drive with trays of champagne. Kael had seen wealth before, both the ordinary kind worn by men like Reginald Voss and the impossible kind that powered Heavenly City's towers, but the Kane family wore theirs loudly."You're quiet," Xena said beside him, as their own car pulled up the long drive."I'm listening," Kael said."To what?" She asked "Whatever this place is trying to tell me about itself." He stated simply.Xena glanced at him, something unreadable behind her eyes, but she didn't ask him to explain.Inside, the ballroom was already half full, dense with the same kind of people Kael had grown used to being looked at by. Officers. Council members. Old families who measured a man's worth by the cut of his coat before they bothered learning his name. Lord Corwin Kane held court near the center o

The transport dropped Kael back into the garden behind the Vale estate just as the sky was starting to lighten at the edges, the storm finally thinning into a cold gray drizzle.He moved quickly and quietly. Along the hedge line. Past the side door the household staff never bothered locking before sunrise. Up the narrow service stairs instead of the main ones. By the time he reached his room, the device under his collar was already tucked away, and nothing about him looked like a man who had spent the last several hours standing in a command tower floating above the clouds.He stripped off the damp coat, hung it and lay down to sleep.Xena found him the next morning in the east hallway, already dressed and working through a data slate propped against one arm."You're up early," she said."Habit." He replied."We have the tailor at noon." She glanced at him, assessing, the way she assessed everything. "The Council expects formal portraits before the wedding. If we look unprepared, my u

After that, the rest of the evening went surprisingly calm, though not before Harlan had stormed off and Darius had followed almost immediately after him.Kael followed Xena back to her house after the party so as to make the arrangements even more real because they knew that a lot of eyes would be on them now.But Kael had something important he need to do so he waited until the Vale estate had gone quiet before he moved.Xena's wing of the house had fallen dark an hour ago. The guards at the outer gate had changed shift and settled into the slow rhythm of men expecting nothing to happen tonight. Rain still fell outside, steady and soft against the windows, the kind of rain that made people stay inside and made the streets easy to disappear into.Kael stepped out onto the balcony of the guest room where he was staying, checked once that no one was watching, and pressed two fingers against a small device hidden beneath his collar."Bastian." He called."Sovereign." The voice came back

The car kept moving through the rain, and outside the window, the tall iron gates of the Vale estate began to rise into view through the mist, waiting."You will have to stay in my place tonight because we are making the engagement announcement tomorrow." Xena said immediately the car drove into the compound."Agreed." Kael said almost immediately. "But I have one condition.""Name it." Xena said."There are things about me you won't understand right away," he said quietly. "As long as none of it puts you or your city at risk and I guarantee that it won't, we don't go looking for answers neither of us is ready to give. Agreed?"Seraphina held his eyes for a long moment, weighing him the way a strategist weighs unfamiliar terrain."Agreed," she said.***The Council chamber was packed tight. Three hundred of Ashfall City's wealthiest people stood shoulder to shoulder, and every single one of them seemed to already know why they were there, even though the official announcement hadn't

Kael's fingers stayed curled around the ring box inside his pocket.He didn't pull it out. He didn't need to look at it again to remember what it felt like to hold it up in front of a hundred strangers and watch it mean nothing to the only person it was meant for.Xena waited. She didn't rush him. She just stood there in the rain with her arms folded, watching him the way he imagined she watched every difficult decision cross her desk, patient and a little bit cold, like time itself was something she controlled instead of something that controlled her."You're thinking about it," she said finally. "That's a good sign.""I'm thinking about why a woman like you needs a man like me," Kael said. "You could have anyone in this city agree to your terms. Half the officers in that hall would marry you tonight if you asked.""Half the officers in that hall also want something from me," Xena said. "A title. A connection. A foothold into my family's resources. You just watched everyone you trust