The Cursed Crown's Only Bride

Touching a woman rots Crown Prince Damien's flesh, a condition no physician at court has been able to reverse. Elena grew up in his household as an adopted daughter, beaten and worked by the family that took her in. One night she wanders into his chamber by mistake, and the contact that should have injured him instead pulls the decay back from his skin. Damien has her moved into the palace and announces her as his fiancée, telling the household she is the only cure he has found. Elena has never lived somewhere she was fed on schedule or spoken to without being struck, and the palace gives her both. Her adoptive family, who spent years treating her as a servant, learn what she is worth to the crown prince and start angling to replace her, pushing their own daughter forward as a better match and spreading word that Elena tricked her way into the engagement. Damien and Elena have to hold the arrangement together against a family that wants her title and, if it can get it, her place at his side.