Book 1 Betrothal & Betrayal Seventeen-year-old Thekla needs her quick wits and knife to track down her betrothed, a soldier who has left her at the altar for the third time. Elias the monk travels with her to Constantinople where she meets Irini of Athens, an extraordinarily beautiful orphan her same age who has been brought by powerful Emperor Constantine to marry his son, Co-Emperor Leon. The two women join forces to survive this vigorous capital of the Roman Empire of the East which is rocked by religious and political strife. But will Thekla help the ambitious and ruthless Irini of Athens find the power that she craves?  

A jealous mother-in-law and six conniving step-brothers watch Irini closely as she weds Emperor Leon. A year later, pregnant, Irini calls on Thekla, her knife-wielding friend and abbess of an imperial convent, to bring her sharp wits and courage to Constantinople and get Irini through childbirth and keep the heir to the throne alive. But Irini’s powerful ambitions far exceed being docile wife and mother. Thekla complies with Irini’s demand for absolute loyalty because she owes Irini her life. But can she overcome her qualms about Irini’s vengeful nature and survive the bloody aftermath of Irini’s ruthless ambition?