The Alchemist's Bargain

She was the Guild's most brilliant alchemist-until they named her a murderess.

For two years, Seraphine Vale has hidden in a fog-bound port under a false name, secretly finishing the forbidden formula her mentor died protecting: the legendary Elixir of Concord. Every working costs her something precious, and she keeps a ledger of everything she has lost.

Then Captain Rhys Calder walks into her shop.

He is the Crown's most loyal soldier, sent to drag her back to the capital in chains. But someone else is hunting her too, and they want her dead. To survive, the two enemies strike a dangerous bargain: she will finish the Elixir, and he will keep her alive long enough to see it done.

Across storm-lashed coasts, candlelit laboratories, and one very small attic room, the tension between them burns hotter with every mile. But the Elixir's final stage demands a price neither of them is prepared to pay. It can't be completed by anyone who holds something back.

And both of them are hiding something.

A steamy, slow-burn historical fantasy romance of forbidden magic, hard-won trust, and two people who must decide what they are willing to give.