A diplomat who can fold creatures from paper is bartered into marriage with a jade-spirit warlord to halt a border war. Nalai Terev—known in whispers as the Paper Tiger—turns treaties into traps and origami into allies. Kade Saranyu, bearer of the Verdant Stag, has sworn never to be anyone's weapon again.

Their political wedding is supposed to be a leash. Instead, it becomes a pact: two keys or none, consent over command. When iron-tuned bells begin forcing truth and obedience across the capital, Nalai animates paper beasts and Kade carves the wind itself to shield the people. Together they uncover a hidden guild—the Threadwrights—writing collars into law and pulling strings behind both thrones.

From dockside underlaw to jade-bright palaces, the pair trade spectacle for shelter, tuning bells to weather and teaching a city to witness itself. But exposing the real puppeteers will cost more than vows and cleverness; it will demand the unbinding of a god and a revolution conducted in public, where love is a promise and law must learn to behave.

Arranged marriage, political intrigue, and a battle couple who choose each other—on the record. When paper roars, thrones tremble.