The day Vasilisa Hedge was murdered for witchcraft, she left behind three things: a bloodthirsty village, a magickal daughter, and a soul-stealing doll. Now Karina, Vasilisa's daughter, is grown up and accused of witchcraft herself. Banished from her village to the Forest of the Dead along with Hans Pinkerto...
The rays of the September sun flooded the great halls of the old chateau of the Dukes of Charmerace, lighting up with their mellow glow the spoils of so many ages and many lands, jumbled together with the execrable taste which so often afflicts those whose only standard of value is money.
When Daiyu is summoned with dozens of other girls to be the Emperor's concubine, she doesn't think that she'll be chosen. Although beautiful and kind, she's hardly qualified to be with the emperor, whose name is stained with blood and whose reputation is blacker than sin. When she accidentally catches the eye of Emper...