Hearts and Hellfire: The Dragon Empress Chronicles

She rules an empire of ash and flame—and he's been sent to burn it down.

Seraphine Drakova didn't claw her way to the Dragon Throne by trusting anyone, especially not silver-tongued assassins who arrive wearing smiles sharper than their blades. Commander Kael Ashborne answers to her enemies, carries their gold, and makes absolutely no secret of his contempt for the empress the world calls a monster.

The problem? Neither of them expected to be trapped together when the ancient wards seal the palace shut—magic older than both their bloodlines demanding something neither is willing to give.

Proximity is a dangerous thing between two people who want each other dead. Every argument crackles with heat that has nothing to do with her fire-breathing generals and everything to do with the infuriating way Kael looks at her like he's still deciding whether she's the villain in this story. Seraphine knows exactly what he is. A weapon. A liability. A man whose hands she keeps catching herself watching.

But secrets surface in sealed palaces, and the truth about who ordered his mission unravels everything Kael thought he knew about his loyalty—and everything Seraphine thought she knew about surviving alone.

Some fires are meant to destroy. Some are meant to *illuminate*.

Ashlen Jordan delivers a scorching fantasy romance that proves the line between hatred and devotion is thinner than dragon scales—and twice as dangerous.