Outskirts Press, INC.

Family murdered, home destroyed, young Shekrah is forced to flee her beloved land of Malia. Once the land of her father, King Markus, it has become a place of terror and ruin, crushed by the invading armies of a tyrannical empire. Escaping with nothing but her barren life, she passes through the icy mountains, emerging into the peaceful kingdom of Durian. Here she spends years, past forgotten, thinking herself free. But when a rumor emerges of a possible attack, Shekrah finds herself returning to Malia, the nightmarish land of which she is rightfully queen.



Unexpectedly teaming up with Torian, the tenacious prince of Durian, they try to prepare the kingdom for its defense while narrowly escaping their own deaths and attempting to avoid capture. Armies build, nightmares return, warriors invade, and Shekrah tries to reconcile her past while helping Torian with the present, all in preparation for the war with the fiercest empire ever known.

She dove forward, colliding hard with Vaskar’s chest and knocking him to the ground, only half a second before he had completed his swing. The sword flew out of his hand and she caught hold of the hilt as it fell, slicing through Torian’s bonds before driving the blade deep into Vaskar’s shoulder and pinning him to the ground.

He screamed in pain, but she barely heard. Grabbing Torian’s hand, she stood, pulling him behind her and dashing through the crowd of too-stunned-to-move Kesans to a temporary shelter behind one of the larger tents. On her way she grabbed her pack, which she had spotted the moment the other tent had collapsed around her.

She pushed Torian to shelter, dashing back to get her weapons before hurrying back to his side. “What…what is happening?” he asked as she strapped her katanas across her back.

“I am going to fight.”

“All of them?”

She looked up at him, and he could see the fire that burned in her eyes. “Yes.”