Isabelle Schuler

Beatrice Barbary has been raised to believe that while education will set her mind free, there are some questions better left unanswered.

But when her father, one of the most powerful men in Bern, is brutally murdered in their own home, she is left reeling, unprotected and vulnerable.

Plunging head first into the mysteries surrounding her father and her own upbringing, Beatrice discovers The Order of St. Eve and the violent secrets they have been hiding her entire life.

Will she be able to right the wrongs of her father, or will the Order silence her first?

As a child, Gruoch's grandmother prophecies that she will one day be Queen of Alba and reclaim the lands of her Pictish kin. When, many years later, she is betrothed to Duncan, the heir-elect, the prophecy appears to come true. Determined to never to be as powerless as her parents, Gruoch leaves behind her home, her family and her friend MacBethad, and travels to the royal seat at Scone to seal her fate. But when a deadly turn of events forces Gruoch to flee Duncan and the capital, Gruoch finds herself at the mercy of an old enemy. Her hope of becoming Queen all but lost, Gruoch does what she must to survive, until she is given a choice: live a long, peaceful life but fall into obscurity, or seize her chance for vengeance and a path back to the throne.