Scion of the Empire’s oldest house. Spy. Assassin. A man who, some claim, has no soul. Ceres Mara Sant is no one’s idea of a hero. Which suits him just fine. He’s not trying to be anyone’s hero; only get in, do the job, and get out. The job being a rogue assassin, a former best friend, whom he’s been hunting across the galaxy. But when he finds himself in one of the worst slums he’s ever encountered, on a backwater planet the entire population of which he loathes, he’s distracted for the first time: by a grubby and pinch-faced street urchin, bold—and foolish—enough to thwart him. This is the tale of what happens next.

Kisten Mara Sant is a man with a problem. He’s disgraced his conservative, politically ambitious family, torpedoed a promising naval career, and only barely escaped being put to death for treason after brawling with his uncle in the middle of the senate floor. His uncle, who happens to be the senate minority leader and heir to the throne of the empire. After Kisten’s father, who is both the chancellor of the empire and his cousin’s bitter political rival, pulled every string at his disposal, Kisten’s sentence was commuted to as governor of a disease-ridden mining outpost teetering on the edge of rebellion where running water is an almost unheard-of luxury and the native population is terrified of toilets. He decides to have one last hurrah before meeting his certain doom but, instead of the fun he’d hoped for, he winds up with a hangover and an unwanted a terrified urchin of a girl who hates him, and does her best to sabotage him at every turn. And that’s when things really get bad. Visit the author, PJ Fox, at her website www.pjfoxwrites where you can read sample chapters, find updates about upcoming releases, and follow along with her strange life.

Here is the second volume in The House of Light and Shadow, the magnificent cycle of novels that begins with The Price of Desire and tells the story of Kisten Mara Sant, the naval commander and prince who must face life in exile. When he was given governorship of Tarsonis, the war-torn mining outpost on the edge of nowhere, Kisten was given a virtual death sentence. Tensions have been mounting since his arrival, and his new home now rests on the brink of disaster. The Brotherhood, the Tarsoni group opposed to Alliance rule, is fomenting rebellion. A rebellion that plans the death of every Alliance-born man, woman and child on the planet. An insidious infection that reaches from the lowest of the low to the highest echelons of power. Kisten himself risks losing his governorship, his life, and the life of his young wife. A girl-turned-woman, who continues to wrestle with her own demons. He must act, before it’s too late—all while hiding a secret that, if discovered, could tear him and Aria apart. This is a tale of love, lust, degradation, and the horror that is war.

Reeling from the shock of the past few months, Aria is struggling to collect the pieces of her broken life and reclaim from them some kind of whole. Meanwhile, even as the rubble left in the wake of the Brotherhood's defeat still smolders, a new set of troubles are brewing. Only this time, they're doing so beneath the surface. Aria discovers, slowly and to her horror, that the world around her isn't quite what it seems. Friendly faces hide murderous intents; knives wait in the shadows. No one is who they seem. And into this world, this life, comes a shadow from Aria's past. A shadow she'd thought she'd escaped, forever-one that forces her confront the pain of her past. And then, after, to answer one very important question.