
Published 2009 by SL Publishing Group IBSN: 20 First SL Publishing Group paperback printing: November 2009 Printed in the U.S.A. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Cethe Copyright © 2009 by Rebecca McLaughlin All rights reserved. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Get this and other SLPG paperback novels for $14.99 or less at "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.This is a work of fiction. He needed a man who carried the ancient blood of the cethera. But for Michael become what mankind feared most, he needed a conduit through which to take the powerful, dangerous magic of the Dark Stream. Michael, whose naran blood was the purest in Tanyrin, was the logical choice. Determined to wrest the throne from his brother, Severyn intended nothing less than the resurrection of the ancient naragi. Tanyrin teetered on the edge of chaos.Ī loyal and devoted friend to Tanyrin's crown prince, Michael could refuse Severyn Lothlain nothing, not even when Severyn asked the unspeakable of him. Fear of the h'nara, fanned by the Church, spread tentacles everywhere. The latest of the Lothlain kings was a weakling, unable to curb the ambitions of an increasingly powerful, corrupt clergy. In ordinary times, the paths of Michael and Stefn would never have crossed. Of all the h'nara, his family alone was immune from the persecution of the powerful Church of Loth, protected by an ancient covenant.

Michael Arranz was the son of a duke and one of the despised h'naran, half-bloods cursed with the blood of the nara running through their veins. He was also a sin-catcher, living proof of God's displeasure, the shame of his existence atonement for the sins of his ancestors.

Stefn Eldering was the youngest son of the Earl of Shia, the last in a long, proud line of demon hunters.

For four hundred years afterwards, the land was at peace. Not until the coming of Arami Lothlain, King of Tanyrin and Blessed of Loth, did the rein of the nara come to a bloody end. The most feared among them were their naragi, sorcerers whose power was all but invincible. Human-like, but not human, the nara ruled Tanyrin for centuries.
