Prince Zayd of Dakaria doesn’t have time to grieve his dying father or savor a hard-won battle before he’s thrust into assuming a throne he isn’t ready for. Between fending off silver-hungry pirates, trying to avoid an unwanted engagement, and concealing a wound from a deadly poisoned arrow that’s curable only by a rare antidote, Zayd, who has warm brown skin and dark hair, is stretched thinner than his depleted army. Seventeen-year-old, dark-haired, amber-eyed Princess Layla of Sawan arrives in Dakaria reeling from the loss of her father, the shock of her mother’s forcing her betrothal to a prince from Fallowmere (the empire that once colonized and nearly exterminated her people), and the weight of keeping a dangerous secret. She finds an unlikely confidante in the equally overburdened Zayd. As their wary bond deepens into something neither can dare to entertain, whispers of long-suppressed magic resurface, and old prophecies stir, Zayd and Layla must decide if they’re willing to risk their hearts. In her YA debut, Hafiza balances palace machinations, battlefield tension, and a slow-burn romance with confidence, grounding her South Asian–inspired fantasy in the geopolitics of trade, colonization, and resource scarcity that give the plot real stakes. Zayd’s voice—weary and self-deprecating—carries the narrative well, while Layla’s sharper, more guarded affect and clipped retorts mask her real vulnerability.