In a flash of agony, Adrea knew her Aunt Neadra was dead. Waking in hospital was strange enough, but having her colouring changed to that of her dead relative was a little hard to take.

Adrea called the authorities to let them know her aunt had been murdered and made the three-hour trip to get to her aunt's home.

Shockingly, things get out of control from there. She is arrested, questioned and released back to Ritual Space, where she has to seal the breach in the wards with her own blood.

Officer Hyl Luning is assigned to watch her, but he had better be quick, because she...

Being raised as the Cursed One does things to a person. It changes your relationships and makes you a very paranoid young woman. This is how Sophy ends up in her fourth decade, looking eighteen and having no love life.

The Mage Guild provides her with a liaison so that she can stop calling to rummage through their archives, and the voice in the machines around her becomes an admirable partner, such as he is.

He files a request with her to assist him in his own personal journey, and it takes her into the Guild Hall to face a mage who wants her as a trophy. She isn't impressed,...