Scents of Silence

Author: Raine Whitlock

When Myrren Vale is summoned to the royal palace, she expects suspicion. She expects secrets. She does not expect him. In the kingdom of Eirden, where magic hums beneath silk and every smile hides a blade, Myrren is a scentcrafter, trained in herbs, toxins, and the quiet truths that cling to blood. The court wants her silent. The crown wants her gone. But Prince Thane sees her. Golden, gracious, and far too gentle for the thorns surrounding his throne, he draws her into the palace’s glittering heart, offering warmth, safety, something dangerously close to a home. And against her better judgment, Myrren wants to stay. But not all eyes in the palace are kind. The king’s ward, Lord Corven, watches her with unsettling stillness, as though her very breath carries a truth he cannot ignore. When nobles begin to die, and the scents on their bodies whisper of poisons Myrren once crafted, she realizes the greatest danger is not the court’s corruption, nor the ancient power stirring beneath its stones. It is what love makes you blind to.