Captain Cassian has dedicated his life to serving the palace guard with unwavering honor. As captain of the royal guard, he's spent years maintaining order, following protocol, and believing the system he serves is just. Then he catches Javier-a thief with impossible magical abilities-breaking into restricted palace areas, and everything changes.Javier survives through cleverness, illusion magic, and never trusting authority. He's built a found family in the slums and perfected the art of staying invisible. Getting caught by the most honorable guard captain in the kingdom should mean prison. Instead, Cassian offers an unexpected deal: help investigate rumors of conspiracy within the palace, and earn complete freedom from all charges.The partnership is volatile from the start. Cassian operates by rules and honor. Javier operates by survival and pragmatism. But as they dig deeper into palace finances and noble meetings, they uncover something massive: a conspiracy to steal hundreds of thousands in gold from the royal treasury, orchestrated by lords who believe themselves untouchable.Their investigation leads them through secret tunnels beneath the palace, into dangerous surveillance of powerful conspirators, and through riots deliberately staged to create chaos. Every discovery brings them closer to exposing the truth-and closer to each other. Late-night planning sessions become vulnerable conversations. Forced proximity becomes genuine connection. Partnership evolves into something that threatens everything Cassian believes about duty and everything Javier believes about self-preservation.But the conspirators are always one step ahead. They've positioned their people throughout palace administration. They've created networks of loyal followers. And when Cassian and Javier finally gather proof of the conspiracy, presenting it means becoming targets themselves. The palace they're trying to save might destroy them for disrupting its comfortable corruption.Now they must choose: maintain safe distance and protect what they've built separately, or trust each other completely and risk everything for a future together.The Gilded Cage is an enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance featuring a guard captain who questions everything he's served, a thief with illusion magic and impossible loyalty, found family worth protecting, palace intrigue that cuts deep, forced proximity that ignites forbidden feelings, conspiracy exposure that changes a kingdom, and two men who must escape the gilded cage of duty and corruption to choose love and freedom.