Justice, honor, integrity and a healthy dose of powerful magic have sent Kaylin Neya to the Hawks, one of the three arms of the Halls of Justice. For years, she's trained and schooled to learn to be an asset to them, in a world where being human can put one at a disadvantage as far as strength, power and intelligence against the other well- endowed races. Fighting to leave the horrors of the fiefs of Nightshade and all those murders years ago behind her will not be an easy thing. Shadows mark more than memory for those who travel in their midst and Kaylin has been so marked in her youth.

Now years later, the horrible deaths have started back up in the city of her youth, and Kaylin is somehow the key to both the mystery and the murders. Kaylin is forced to accept the assistance of Severn, the boy who helped raise her and then did something so unspeakable it turned her fiercely against him. Only Lord Grammayre, the Hawklord, can keep her from killing him on the spot. This trio is rounded out by Tiamaris, who's a power and an enigma unto himself. To do so, she will allow herself to face her dreaded past, ally with her enemies and dare to tap into magic never meant for human use. Kaylin only knows one thing; she must stop the deaths of the innocent children and must do so now.

Sagara places you right alongside Kaylin as she uncovers her shadowed destiny. A wickedly amusing sense of humor combined with nonstop action, engaging characters and a fantasy world filled with creatures who serve either justice, chaos or the shadows in between, make this an incredible must-read novel. More is stirring than evil, for all of the reader's senses are engaged when reading this exciting, twisting story. One cannot help but laugh ruefully at the mirror communication system and those dreaded wake-up calls. Nor can the reader stay completely safe on one side of the page. Where Kaylin travels, so does the reader, and it's a walk through fire and death and paths cast in shadow.

Book Summary

Seven years ago Kaylin fled the crime-riddled streets of Nightshade, knowing that something was after her. Children were being murdered -- and all had the same odd markings that mysteriously appeared on her own skin . . .

Since then, she's learned to read, she's learned to fight and she's become one of the vaunted Hawks who patrol and police the City of Elantra. Alongside the winged Aerians and immortal Barrani, she's made a place for herself, far from the mean streets of her birth.

But children are once again dying, and a dark and familiar pattern is emerging, Kaylin is ordered back into Nightshade with a partner she knows she can't trust, a Dragon lord for a companion and a device to contain her powers -- powers that no other human has. Her task is simple -- find the killer, stop the murders . . . and survive the attentions of those who claim to be her allies!