In the morning, after a fitful, sleepless night spent listening to the howling winds and furious thunder of what may have been the worst storm he'd ever seen, Hugo Hanrahan splashed cold water on his face and confronted the undeniable fact that everything that had happened to him since leaving Maeril Village was real.
He really had met Lady Ashlynn in the middle of the forest near a shallow grave where Owain's men had buried her just half a year ago. He really had sat on a tribunal in those very same woods and he'd watched helplessly as Lady Ashlynn used Sir Rain's own sword to execute a traitor.
But those things had only been a precursor to the real horror he found himself in. He and Sir Rain had been invited to become 'guests' of Lady Ashlynn in the heart of the demon's territory. Invited by a woman who turned out to be a great witch like the infamous Evil Queen who nearly destroyed the Kingdom of Gaal in its infancy.
