Fire in the Swamp

The most powerful families of the court owe their influence to three things: property, titles, and magic. House Konbayazen, lacking a sorcerer, became a laughingstock among fellow aristocrats; that is, until the head of their House took his daughter Sabina and invited the curse of death upon her – turning her into “death incarnate.” This curse causes any who utter Sabina’s name to catch a fatal illness and contact with her flesh causes one’s own to rot away. This new power allows her father to monger fear, killing anyone who dare stand in his way. After countless years of abuse at the hands of her father, Sabina is allowed to convalesce in the countryside to regain her strength. He sends her to an empty, abandoned village with the imperial knight Erzan Muskovayev to be her bodyguard…but there is something different about Erzan. Normally repulsed by the heat of another person’s body, Sabina immediately finds an abnormal comfort in his presence. What’s more, Erzan seems immune to any curse that he encounters. As the two spend time together in the seemingly haunted village, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other, in a way neither knew was possible…