Price of Innocence by Michelle Piper

SPFBO9

In an unconventional plot, Queen Aspera enlists four criminals to conceal her role in Sosten’s fall. If they don’t bend the knee and give unyielding loyalty to her cruel reign, they forfeit their lives. However, when they steal an infant child in the night and destroy his family, they quickly realize how flimsy the queen’s justice is. The infant, Sonder, is the last known descendant of the Auza-Verndari, a blessing given by The Goddess of Stars. He becomes the queen’s ward to continue his father’s bloody legacy. Growing up alongside him is a Lorist Princess named Rhianwyn, similarly held captive. Despite the joy they find as children, they grow to realize they’ve become ensnared in her war against their lineages. Standing between them and Aspera’s ambitions is a man named Bran, the last living Black Knight of Old, once a protector of the Auza-Verndari, and Aspera’s right hand. When he discovers a sliver of the truth, he convinces the four to defy the queen to protect the children. But when the lines between who they were and who they can become in her shadow blur, their alliance frays. They grapple with what it means to be good when they’re the villains bearing torches rewriting the kingdom’s history and concealing how deep the treachery goes.