Prince of the Blood

A king inclined contrary to nature.
A foreign-born queen confined to the palace.
A kingdom desperately needing an heir.
Two courtiers ask Keladon, retired battlemage and the king's bastard half-brother, to impregnate the queen. His sense of duty to the kingdom sends him to her bedchamber, where he finds Queen Lilera to be a woman of both beauty and intellect, deserving a far better fate.
But secretly fathering the heir to the throne is just the beginning. Under attack from all sides, Keladon must battle a conspiracy of magic and murder threatening the kingdom's survival - and the woman he comes to love.