"Clemens has constructed a world of magic that's never been seen before, with a cast of beings who are so engaging and entrancing that you never want the story to end."--John Saul Elena bears the mark of the wit'ch upon her palm, the crimson stain that testifies to an awesome power of unimaginable potency: wild, seductive, difficult to control. Only a mistress of blood magick can stand against the foul minions and all-corrupting evil of the Dark Lord. But Elena is not yet the mistress of her magick. Protected by an ageless warrior and a band of renegades, she quests for a lost city where prophecies speak of a mystic tome that holds the key to the Dark Lord's defeat. But if the Dark Lord finds her first, Elena will become his most fearsome weapon . . .