Overview

Captain Elliott Parrish of Her Majesty’s 17th Lancers cavalry division finds most details about his assignment in the Crimean peninsula insufferable. Rampant cholera, missing supplies, and inept planning start the British war effort against the Russian Czar’s expansion into Turkish territory on poor footing.

What should have been a swift and decisive summer victory soon drags into a harrowing winter campaign, and Elliott must rally disheartened men through sickness, battle, and starvation. But when he is assigned the additional task of spying on a fellow officer, the inscrutable Cornet Ilyas Kovakin, he finds himself disconcerted and fascinated by both the work and the man.

Rumors surround Ilyas Kovakin, the half-Russian officer who reports to none in his division. People say they’ve seen snakes slithering into his tent at night, that he has another face visible only in certain light, and a penchant for violent acts carried out in darkness, alone. But the truth that Elliot soon discovers is much more dangerous then mere superstition.

For Ilyas, his return to Crimea is colored with the horrors of his past.

Once a mercenary, he has made a terrible mistake and inherited horrifying powers that he can barely control. He feels his hold over his humanity slipping away daily, and fears that salvation may already lay beyond him when the cheerful Captain Parrish catches his attention. Among men who hate him and superiors who covet his brutal power, Ilyas finds the young captain's charming company almost irresistible.

But Ilyas knows that the closer he is drawn to Elliot the more he will endanger them both.

"From bubbly, heart-warming romantic comedy to exhilarating and ferocious epic fantasy, there are no limits to Amara's range and versatility." -- Josh Lanyon

"Astrid Amara knows how to deliver action, passion, suspense and drama." -- Literary Nymphs Reviews, A Policy of Lies

"Intricate storytelling and a sweeping narrative with vivid worldbuilding." -- Well Read Reviews, Archer's Heart

When Astrid Amara isn't writing, she is either riding horses, goat herding, dog wrestling, sleeping, or working as a civil servant. She is a Lambda Literary Award finalist for The Archer's Heart and author of numerous titles, including Half Pass from Samhain and the Holidays with the Bellskis series. More information can be found at: www.astridamara.com

"Who is he?" Elliott asked, interrupting Henry with a nudge and pointing toward the black gelding's stall.
Henry raised his eyebrows. "Kovakin? He's apparently some half-bloody Russian. You haven't heard about him, have you?"
"No, I haven't. Does he have a story?"
"The story is he doesn't have one," Henry said, under his breath.
"Doesn't have what?"
"A story." Henry moved closer to be heard above the cries of the horses. "Cornet Ilyas Kovakin miraculously appeared as an officer with the Lancers a day before we left Dublin. Some dashed nonsense to do with an order up on high."
Elliott shrugged. "Purchased commission, perhaps?"
"Of course, but all positions in the regiment were already filled." Henry patted Mabel absent-mindedly as he spoke. "Miller is having a fit, of course, and Ashley's tried every trick in the book to get the chap thrown overboard."
"Really?" Elliott had stopped petting Mabel in his interest and now the horse shoved her nose into his hands for attention. "We've been at sea less than a week, what's he done?"
Henry nodded at the stall. "He sits there with his horse like that, all day and night." Henry lowered his voice further. "He's spoken hardly a word--not even to his fellow officers. You ask me, he's a spy."
"What's he spying on down here, the quantity of manure?"
"You laugh, but I ask you this–why would a cornet appear on the rolls after all the orders were set to sail? And when Ashley asked what subdivision is under Kovakin's charge, Major Douglas told him that Kovakin doesn't have a subdivision. He's working as some special aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-Colonel West."
"That's odd." Elliott frowned. "But that doesn't explain why Lieutenant Ashley wants him overboard."
"He thinks Kovakin's cursed the voyage."
Elliott laughed at that. "Cursed? What is he, an old woman?" His stomach churned and he gripped hold of it. "Hell, Henry, don't make me laugh, I'm sick as a dog."
Henry shrugged. "The men don't like him. They say he never sleeps, and Chisholm's wife Elizabeth said that when she passed him in the galley the other day, she saw something living inside him."
"Like a tapeworm?" Elliott joked.
"No, like a ghost. She said she felt two pairs of eyes staring at her when he looked at her. And I've been informed that second sight runs in her family."