Travis Bughi

With power and respect finally in hand, rarely has so much hung in the balance for Takeo Karaoshi.Unfortunately, Lord Botan Katsu has all that, plus Gavin, Takeo's enchanted sword, and an impregnable defensive position. Stuck between Botan and the Nguyen forces, Takeo must risk it all to destroy one before the other closes in. A difficult but not impossible task.Yet things are never as simple as they appear.

For sixteen years, Emily Stout has known a simple, yet harsh, life on the Great Plains-farming the land, avoiding thunderbirds and banshees, dealing with minotaurs and gnomes-but she dreams of more. She longs to wander the plains as a gunslinger, serve the angels as a knight, or anything else that could break her free of her trapped existence.Then, in a moment of desperation, Emily's mother reveals a secret, one that will change everything for her, give her the chance to explore her world, and send her to the magnificent city of Lucifan. However, Lucifan is not the utopia it appears to be, and there are many dark and deadly creatures with equally dark and deadly plans. Amongst the brutal ogres, terrifying gargoyles, and plotting leprechauns, Emily will find an enemy shrouded in darkness and deceit who wants nothing more than her death.Faced with all of this, what chance does a farmer's daughter have?

The Forest of Angor looms ahead, land of giant wooden pillars and deadly enemies-from centaurs to elves, treants to bugbears, werewolves and more. Emily Stout has never seen nor faced such challenges as she will in the shadows of this forest. Beyond lies Themiscyra, home to the amazons and the tenuous promise of safety.Meanwhile, the traitor still lingers among them, hiding in anonymity and free to plot and act. Emily is running out of time as the amazons fight their way through the hostile forest. She must watch and wait, hoping the traitor will make a mistake before the woman who would plot against her own sisters can carry out her plan to deliver a basilisk to a power-hungry vampire.Emily has her suspicions, but a dream from the silent angel, Quartus, haunts her thoughts. The dream is a warning of dark times ahead, of choices to make and of mistakes that can never be undone, a never-ending cycle of betrayal, fear, and death. Emily knows she must solve the riddle of the dream or risk tragedy for herself, her family, Lucifan, and perhaps even the world.