The Third Toast

Tamar Vashadze’s brother is an axe murderer. People usually laugh when she says it. They shouldn’t.

After nineteen years of war, peace has finally become cheaper than winning. The price is a proposed marriage between Tamar, sister to a mountain lord, and Avtandil Orbelani, crown prince of the kingdom her family has spent half her life fighting. Tamar expects politics. She does not expect to like him.

Then assassins strike before the third toast.

The attack leaves guest right broken, an old iron key warm in Tamar’s hand, and evidence that someone has been engineering distrust between both kingdoms for generations. As Tamar, Avtandil, and her dangerously protective brother follow the trail from mountain roads to royal archives and neutral sanctuaries, forgotten witness magic begins waking around agreements that were never honestly kept.

But the old system is not a prophecy, and Tamar has no intention of becoming anyone’s chosen weapon.

To end the war, she and Avtandil will have to decide which promises deserve to survive, which inherited rules should be broken, and whether wanting tomorrow together is enough reason to choose it freely.