Queen's Gambit — Lilly Ryan

Even though no one is completely sure why, the cities of Rashanor and Gashan have been at war for years. Both cities and their populations have been decimated, and any hope for future peace looks impossible. Into this volatile situation was born the First Heir to the Throne of Rashanor, Amaril Velgara.
But Amaril is no ordinary Rashanorian. She is a Morkarda, a rare, and now poorly understood, individual able to bind others to her soul through the magic of the mothercrystal living under the city's temple. Called simply The Bond, it allows her to enhance and heal those bonded to her but at the price of bearing their wounds in her own flesh. Coupled with her training as a warrior, this link serves to make her and her Circle the most elite fighting team on the planet.
Viewed by some as savior, and others as not even human, she struggles to balance the demands of duty to the Throne and her beloved city against the cost those bound to her ultimately pay. Though the Bonded are volunteers, and reap the many rewards of the Bond, Amaril blames herself for putting them in harm's way. And sometimes not being able to save them. She hides her growing depression and the strange thoughts that have begun flitting through her head but the Circle senses something is wrong.
Helpless to discover what ails their captain, they can only give what little help she will accept. When two more of their number fall in battle, the remainder become truly afraid for Amaril's sanity.
Returning from their latest, deadly mission, the small group stumbles upon a badly wounded man, bringing Lothoriel dav Hara'shian, Crown Prince of Gashan, into their midst. Having entered Rashanor on a desperate mission to force a peace treaty, Lothor and his men were ambushed, leaving the Prince as the sole survivor. Luckily for him, Amaril hatches a desperate plan for this enemy soldier whose name she doesn't even know, a plan that requires bringing him to the Palace for healing. But plots run thick and someone wants to ensure he never returns.
An immediate attraction sparks between the two heirs. Believing they have no other choice in their culture of extreme social restrictions, they hide their feelings, and identities, to avoid a diplomatic incident.
Little does Lothor know, Amaril intends to bond him to her, an act his people revile.
And Amaril has no idea Lothor crossed into Rashanorian territory in the hopes of ending the war.
Things become even more complicated when Amaril learns her mother, the Queen, has been acting irrationally ever since her daughter left. This has left the running of the city in the greedy hands of First Sage Sisren, the councilor to the Throne, who sees mother and daughter as things to be removed from his path to being the next king.
Then a traitor starts a rebellion within the very Palace walls and the Queen collapses from an unknown cause just as Amaril begins to drown in a flood of grief, guilt and emotional pain. Her unstable mind forces her Circle to cut their mental ties to her in order to deal with the fighting or risk going mad themselves.
Can Amaril hold it together long enough to defeat the rebels, save her mother's throne and life, and keep Rashanor out of the hands of a master manipulator?
Or will she lose the battle to the demons in her head?