One seat on the intergalactic Sakien Empire s supreme ruling body, the Council of Seven, remains unfilled, that of the Empress Apparent. The seat isn t won by votes or marriage. It s won in a tournament of ritualized combat in the ancient tradition. Now that tournament, the Empress Game, has been called and the females of the empire will stop at nothing to secure political domination for their homeworlds.
The battle for political power isn t contained by the tournament s ring, however. The empire s elite gather to forge, strengthen or betray alliances in a dance that will determine the...

The bloody tournament to determine the new empress of the intergalactic empire may be over, but for exiled princess Kayla Reinumon, the battle is just beginning. To free her home planet from occupation, Kayla must infiltrate the highest reaches of imperial power. But when a deadly nanovirus threatens to ravage the empire, it will take more than diplomacy to protect her homeworld from all-out war.