A River Between Crowns

Coren gave the order that killed Yujin's brother. Now they must save a city together.

Prince Coren Vaust arrives in Nareth with his scarred dragon, Vesper, and a name its people have learned to fear. Under a fragile truce, enemies are working side by side to repair the riverworks of a city caught between two rival crowns.

Shen Yujin, an eastern river warden, knows exactly what Coren's obedience has cost. With the silver river dragon Old Rain beside him, he works to keep people safe from the water—and from those who would turn it against them. He needs the prince's help. Trust is another matter.

Then a collapse reveals a buried record: evidence that threatens the history both crowns have defended. As powerful officials reach for the truth and war presses closer, repairing the river becomes inseparable from deciding who has the right to control it.

Between shared work, late meals and walks along the lantern-lit banks, Coren and Yujin begin to see more than an enemy in each other. Their growing tenderness offers something neither expected. It also asks more than either knows how to give.

Desire cannot undo an order. Love cannot take the place of forgiveness. And protecting the city—and each other—may mean defying the kingdoms that made them enemies.

The first book in Dragons' Sundering, TAKU SKY's A River Between Crowns brings together bonded dragons, political intrigue and a slow-burning romance shaped by grief, responsibility and the courage to choose differently. In a city of hungry streets and stubborn hope, two men must discover what can be repaired—and what must never be forgotten.