The Zheninghai Chronicles

Sixteen-year-old Song Liena is just one of the many peasants in the empire until the discovery of her unexpected magic upends her world. She's ripped from her family and forced to join the hundreds of elite magic-wielders fighting to graduate from the empires rigorous Academy with their lives and honor intact.

Sun Aranya just wants a stable job so she can care for her ailing grandfather. After years of relentless magic training, she has finally earned a city wardenship—only to discover on her first day that annoyingly handsome Shi Kai is laying claim to her position. There’s only one option: they’ll just have to compete for it. But while Aranya and Kai are forced to work together until one of them wins their competition, trouble brews in the empire. Whispered threats of enemy invasion abound, and magic-wielders are disappearing across the empire without a trace.

After narrowly escaping the clutches of the conniving and dangerous Shi family, Aranya and Kai find it more difficult than ever to work together amid the pressures of their secret mission, and the constant danger of the monster-ridden wilderness they travel. An unexpected kiss only serves to complicate things further. Can Aranya learn to trust Kai? Or will the slow unraveling of his secrets doom the chance of them becoming anything more than enemies?

Princess Meiling harbors a deadly secret. Her people believe her lack of magic to be a curse, so she has spent her life in the background, all but shunned from court. But she does have magic—and it’s the magic of legends. When the secret of her magic is threatened, she is forced to flee her home into the dangerous wilderness with nothing but a begrudging warrior as protection. Handsome and taciturn Tan Shangdi isn’t happy to have his career waylaid, but he will do whatever it takes to fulfill his duty and protect Meiling with his life.

Imprisoned in an enemy fortress, Meiling finds herself at the mercy of a ruthless captor. Having spent the last decade preparing his forces, Fang Zedong is determined to make Meiling use her magic to betray her empire. And he will use whatever means necessary to make her bend to his will. Shang, wounded and awaiting execution, doesn’t waste a second in his own prison. Under the cover of darkness, he makes his daring escape—swearing he will find the princess he once hated and destroy anyone who hurt her. Even if it costs him his life.

Finally back home, Meiling finds that returning to her old life as the cursed princess is harder than she imagined. She’s told to rest and recover from her harrowing time in the enemy’s fortress and enjoy the week-long festival.

Finally back home, Meiling finds that returning to her old life as the cursed princess is harder than she imagined. She’s told to rest and recover from her harrowing time in the enemy’s fortress and enjoy the week-long festival. She can’t. Not when Shang faces losing everything—including his life—because of her. She won’t rest until he is pardoned, but that is easier said than done in a world that still believes her cursed.