The Flames of the Dove (FIRST DRAFT)
Italy, 1487.
The Knights Templar, led by the notorious Rodrigo Borgia, head on a Crusade to slaughter all 'Doves' - a secretive society of the Old Religion who preserve the curiosities of human nature and life.
A young Sofia Merlini watches as her family and fellow Doves are burnt alive before her on crimes of heresy and witchcraft, and remembering the man's face, she vows revenge against those who destroyed her life.
Ten years later, the now eighteen-year-old Sofia has been nurtured and groomed by the de facto leader of what remains of the Doves and while she refuses to join them on their new dark path of destruction and death, she sets her sights on the downfall of the Borgias - they will pay.
An opportunity arises when the hitman, Dario Oberto, brings her to Rome to work in his father, Rodrigo Borgia's court, now known as Pope Alexander VI.
Rodrigo's eldest son, Giovanni, is dead and he is consumed by paranoia that everyone is out to get to him and his family. Disguised as a physician, Sofia plots her revenge, determined to uncover the family's weaknesses and then using them so they destroy themselves. She teams up with Borgia's most feared enemies but gets caught up in the dangers of the scandalous Papal reign of Alexander VI and the Borgia family.
But she soon realises that nothing is at it seems, even of those who raised her and when her heart opens for a man with Borgia blood running through him, her goal changes and Sofia finds herself fighting a battle on two fronts.
Ending the Borgias dynasty is more complicated then it looks.
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(A Historical Fiction/Fantasy/Romance novel)
(Rated PG-13 for violence, mild sexual violence and sexual scenes)
