[Wattpad Featured Story: Fantasy Hidden Gems] When we were children they whispered about beasts that hid amongst the shifting dunes, dark things with sharp teeth and loud howls and an insatiable thirst. Animals that gutted their prey and left intestines rotting in the sun and bones sprawled out across dried riverbeds. We listened with rapt attention and shivered despite the searing desert heat. But I'm not a child anymore, and I know better. The sand-dusted coyotes, the sleepy vipers-they're just animals, dumb and slow. I've met the real beast of the dunes, and he's nothing like they say. He wears the skin of a man, and the silks of a noble, and spins lies with a silver tongue sharp enough to make the earth bleed... And he holds my life in his blood-stained hands.

❝BUILD AN EMPIRE AND BURN IT TO THE GROUND.❞ The evening prior to the spring equinox, soothsayer and witch, Maarit Pheraios, has an earth-shattering vision regarding the future of Bonvalet. The prophecy speaks of the Infernal Prince, who takes the throne after the death of the king. It is only when King Tevenot is murdered the following day that Maarit comprehends the urgency of the situation. Relying on her prophecy for truth, she notifies as many villagers as she possibly can about the peril that awaits them in the near future. However, when he learns of the warnings she has been giving, Maarit finds herself imprisoned by the Infernal Prince himself. © Copyright 2017 by Lily White. All rights reserved. Featured on October 11, 2017.