The Flame King's Reluctant Bride
A Rejected Mate RomantasyBy Vesper Hale
Length8h 24m
About this audiobook
Port Carrow's harbour smells of salt and gunpowder and somebody's burnt sugar. Rosalind Darrow presses herself into the shadow of a stacked crate and counts the guards on the gangplank. Two, both in navy wool with silver lightning bolts stitched across the chest, both watching the crowd instead of the ship.
She has timed it for the grand finale. The Council always saves its best for last.
The ledger is in the captain's quarters, third drawer, behind a false bottom. She watched him lock it there three nights ago from the servant's passage with her palm flat against cold plaster. She paid a dockhand three silver marks to learn which door would be unlocked. The lock on the cabin takes her eleven seconds and a hairpin.
Inside the ledger, written three times in the margins and underlined: *Ascension Plan.*
Then the footsteps in the corridor, and the door, and a hand closing round her wrist like iron. Dashiell Marwick has storm-grey eyes and three pale duelling lines across the knuckles of his right hand, and Rosalind has seen that scar before, in the dark, on the night her parents died.
He knows more than he should. He knows her uncle has been trying to marry her off for a year, that her brother Bram wants the Navy, that she runs a small operation out of her father's old warehouse. He also knows the thing she has never told anyone: that she can tell when a person is lying.
*"I think we both want to know who killed our fathers."*
Unlicensed magic, an affinity that belongs to no House, is the kind of thing the Council answers with iron cells beneath the Elemental Tower. Dashiell offers a tea house on Silver Street at noon instead, and the offer is not really an offer.
What the ledger names is a plan financed through her own family's house, a temple, a date, and a requirement written down like a shopping list: one fire elemental, bloodline unbroken.
Her cousin Sabine butters toast with the precision of a surgeon and has already arranged for Bram's acceptance letter to arrive.
A closed-door romantasy of elemental houses and court politics, ending in a Council chamber where the woman who spent her life hiding what she was stands up and testifies.
Audiobook details
GenreRomance, Fantasy
Length8 hrs 24 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 15, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
2Chapter 1 - The Ember That Never Dies
3Chapter 2 - The Price of a Promise
4Chapter 3 - The Storm’s Shadow
5Chapter 4 - The Spark Between Us
Mostrar todos os capítulosVer menos
6Chapter 5 - Cinders and Secrets
7Chapter 6 - The Fire That Binds
8Chapter 7 - The Weight of Ash
9Chapter 8 - A Dance on the Edge
10Chapter 9 - The Quiet Before the Storm
11Chapter 10 - The Lie That Saved Us
12Chapter 11 - The Ember’s Reach
13Chapter 12 - The Storm’s Fury
14Chapter 13 - The Fire’s Choice
15Chapter 14 - The Feast of Lies
16Chapter 15 - The Prison of Ash
17Chapter 16 - The Storm’s Whisper
18Chapter 17 - The Ember’s Wrath
19Chapter 18 - The Lie That Cuts
20Chapter 19 - The Storm’s Last Breath
21Chapter 20 - The Fire’s Judgment
22Chapter 21 - The Ash of Betrayal
23Chapter 22 - The Ember That Never Fades
24Chapter 23 - The Storm’s Calm
25Chapter 24 - The Fire That Testifies
26Chapter 25 - The Court of Flame and Storm
27Epilogue
28The End
29About the Author
30Also by Vesper Hale
31Acknowledgements
32A Note from the Author
More from Vesper Hale
The Stalked ScholarVesper Hale9h 20m$5
Chosen by the BeastVesper Hale8h 8m$5
The Shadow's CaptiveVesper Hale7h 36m$5
The Shadow Thorn KingVesper Hale7h 23m$5
Throne of StarlightVesper Hale7h 13m$5
Promised by the BeastVesper Hale6h 58m$5
Crown of FlameVesper Hale8h 18m3.8 (43)$5
Empire of BoneVesper Hale6h 52m$5
Marked by MoonlightVesper Hale8h 18m$5
Hunted to the Fae KingVesper Hale7h 23m$5
Promised by the Lone WolfVesper Hale7h 3m$5
The Broken Shadow LordVesper Hale7h 37m$5
Sworn to the Shadow CrownVesper Hale7h 58m$5
Desperate MeasuresBrenda Jackson8h 59m4.7 (670)$28 · $0.00
Pride & Prejudice (Annotated)Jane Austen15h 10m4.7 (13.3K)$2 · $0.00
The Search (Annotated)Grace Livingston Hill7h 29m4.7 (1.1K)$1.99 · $0.00
The ReunionJana Deleon6h 31m4.6 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
Wishes from the HeartSophie Mays4h 9m4.7 (344)$15 · $0.00
Blizzard ShowdownShirlee McCoy5h 16m4.6 (1.1K)$12 · $0.00
To Hold and ProtectSandra Owens7h 59m4.6 (1.1K)$8 · $0.00
Arctic WitnessHeather Woodhaven5h 46m4.6 (985)$12 · $0.00
Following the TrailLynette Eason6h 35m4.6 (2.3K)$12 · $0.00
Defending from DangerJodie Bailey5h 46m4.6 (588)$24 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
Explosive RevengeMaggie K. Black6h 18m4.6 (545)$12 · $0.00
Her Brand of JusticeB.J. Daniels6h 48m4.6 (1.3K)$12 · $0.00
Search And DetectTerri Reed5h 51m4.6 (706)$24 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
Danger in the WildernessDarlene L. Turner6h 54m4.7 (299)$12 · $0.00
Yukon JusticeDana Mentink6h 15m4.6 (751)$12 · $0.00
The Rogue WarriorCindy Roland Anderson5h 44m4.6 (410)$17 · $0.00
Her Duty Bound DefenderSharee Stover6h 30m4.6 (1.1K)$24 · $0.00
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Toshikazu Kawaguchi Book SetToshikazu Kawaguchi18h 55m4.5 (1.4K)$40 · $0.00
The Song of AchillesMadeline Miller11h 15m4.3 (2.3M) · 1121$29 · $0.00
Hunt of the DragonJuliette Cross9h 46m4.4 (736)$20
All This Twisted GloryTahereh Mafi11h 31m4.3 (54.6K)$29 · $0.00
Deadly GameChristine Feehan13h 20m4.3 (15.8K)$30
THE RETURN OF THE KINGJ.R.R. Tolkien21h 5m4.7 (1.2M)$7 · $0.00
WildfireIlona Andrews12h 45m4.5 (62.9K)$33 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Treasure Island (Adventure Classic with Illustrations)Robert Louis Stevenson8h 50m4.5 (11.2K)$1.99 · $0.00
Lola in the MirrorTrent Dalton13h 40m4.5 (43.9K)$33 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett13h 36m4.5 (163.8K)$33 · $0.00
The Leo Tolstoy CollectionLeo Tolstoy9h 1m4.5 (4.9K)$10 · $0.00
Sword and ShadowMichelle Sagara16h 51m4.5 (2.2K)$40 · $0.00
The Neil Gaiman ReaderNeil Gaiman27h 3m4.5 (3.2K)$53 · $0.00
The HobbitJ. R. R. Tolkien10h 51m4.4 (4.9M)$12 · $0.00
Bad HabitAlana S. Portero5h 37m4.4 (52.3K)$24 · $0.00
Science Fiction & Fantasy CollectionH. P. Lovecraft16h 32m4.5 (2.7K)$2 · $0.00
The Last GodMichael McClung3h 43m4.5 (493)$5.10 · $0.00
The Undead PoolKim Harrison16h 13m4.4 (34.6K)$33 · $0.00
You may also like
No Sin UnpunishedLynDee Walker7h 43m4.6 (1.4K)$17
Black HorizonJames Grippando12h 38m4.0 (3.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Missing WitnessAllison Brennan11h 17m4.1 (8.6K)$7 · $0.00
Curse of the Pogo StickColin Cotterill5h 40m4.2 (5.8K)$14
The Blood CardElly Griffiths8h 44m4.1 (11.2K)$20
Elegy for EddieJacqueline Winspear10h 10m4.2 (34.8K)$29 · $0.00
Running From the LawLisa Scottoline2h 49m3.8 (6.9K)$18 · $0.00
Dying to KnowRae Cairns10h 35m4.1 (845)$29 · $0.00
The Vanishing StairMaureen Johnson9h 14m4.2 (136.8K)$29 · $0.00
Black as He’s PaintedNgaio Marsh7h 57m3.9 (3.7K)$17
The Memory Thieves (The Conjureverse, #2)Dhonielle Clayton11h 12m4.3 (1.5K)$29 · $0.00
Final AppealLisa Scottoline5h 28m3.9 (9.9K)$24 · $0.00
Once upon a GrindCleo Coyle11h 31m4.2 (5.4K)$20
No Way BackAndrew Gross8h 50m3.9 (5.1K)$29 · $0.00
Desert HeatJ. A. Jance7h 58m4.0 (18K)$26 · $0.00
Orchid BeachStuart Woods10h 46m4.1 (17.9K)$29 · $0.00
Protecting Her HeartNancy Campbell Allen9h 43m4.1 (1.5K)$23
This Side of MurderAnna Lee Huber9h 44m4.0 (17.1K)$20
SanctuaryFaye Kellerman13h 1m4.1 (9.8K)$33 · $0.00
All Cry ChaosLeonard Rosen10h 23m3.7 (1.5K)$20 · $0.00