THE SPELLBINDING NINE KINGDOMS SAGA CONTINUES AS A MAGE WITHOUT MAGIC AND A STABLE MAID WITHOUT A HOME FACE THE APPROACHING SHADOWS OF DARKNESS—AND CHOICES THAT WILL CHANGE THEM BOTH FOREVER...   Acair of Ceangail, still dodging his reputation as a notorious black mage, has undertaken the ultimate quest: ridding the world of a mysterious, terrible dark magic while using no magic of his own. But he never bargained for three maddening complications: attempting to safeguard his beautiful but horse-obsessed companion, Léirsinn; trying not to slay a profoundly irritating prince of Neroche; and slipping in and out of places he knows will spell his doom if he’s caught.   Léirsinn of Sàraichte simply wants to do what needs to be done—find the makers of various spells and rescue her grandfather. But walking side by side with Acair brings a terrible revelation about the magic she needs, and what its price will exact from her soul.   Together, Acair and Léirsinn face danger they never could have imagined, culminating in choices that will alter them and the history of the Nine Kingdoms forever. Praise for New York Times bestselling author Lynn Kurland “One of romance’s finest writers.”— The Oakland Press “Both powerful and sensitive…A wonderfully rich and rewarding book.”—Susan Wiggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author  “An enchanting, vibrant story.”— Kirkus Reviews “A superbly crafted, sweetly romantic tale.”— Booklist “[Kurland] weaves stories with a magic that could only be conjured from dreams.”—The Reading Cafe Lynn Kurland is the New York Times bestselling author of Ever My Love , Stars in Your Eyes , Dreams of Lilacs , All for You , and the Novels of the Nine Kingdoms, as well as numerous other novels and short stories. One Horses. Grain. Manure. Those were useful, reliable things a woman with any amount of good sense chose to fill her life with. Anything of a more untoward or unnerving nature was obviously something that same sort of woman should avoid like a pile of mouldy oats. Léirsinn of Sàraichte stood in the shadows of a rather disreputable-looking pub, shivered, and made a valiant effort to focus on those things that had made up so much of her life so far. Horses were majestic creatures, grain kept them happy, and cleaning up after them was the price she'd paid for the joy of riding on their backs. It was a simple, predictable circle that had given purpose and meaning to her days. How she had strayed so far from such a pedestrian life, she couldn't say- She sighed and stopped herself from even finishing that thought. She knew exactly how she'd come to be where she was and how barn work had led her to such a terrible place. It wasn't something she particularly wanted to think about, but she was trapped where she was for the moment and she needed something to help her pass the time. It seemed like the least dangerous of the things she could be doing, so she made herself more comfortable against the outside of the pub and allowed her thoughts to wander. They wandered without much effort to the moment when her life had become something so thoroughly not what she'd been accustomed to. There she'd been, innocently going about her chores as usual, when a man had arrived at her uncle's barn looking for work. What she should have done was take away the pitchfork he quite obviously had never used and shown him the quickest way out of the barn. Instead, she'd stared just a bit too long at his truly spectacular visage and apparently lost all her wits. Not only had she allowed him to remain in her uncle's stables attempting work he was singularly unqualified to do, she had listened to him long enough to be convinced that her uncle wanted her dead and her only hope was to flee. She had somehow lost her grip on good sense and traded the three things she knew best for other, less comfortable things such as mages, magic, and mythical beasts. A breathless race across the whole of the Nine Kingdoms in the company of a madman and a shapechanging horse-two horses actually, but who was counting?-had left her standing where she was at present, trying not to gape at her surroundings like the country mouse she most definitely was and wishing she were safely tucked away in an obscure barn. Where she was at present was Eòlas, the capital city of the country of Diarmailt. She hadn't dared ask anyone to verify her location, though she likely could have given that most of the inhabitants of the Nine Kingdoms were on the same cobblestone byway with her. Never in her life had she seen so many people gathered together in one place. To make matters worse, most of those souls seemed determined to either elbow her out of their way or grope various parts of her person as they passed by her, no doubt in search of valuables. She frowned at a particularly irritating lad who seemed determined to pester her, but she wasn't sure what the rules were for ridding oneself of that sort of vexation. Sh