The master tells me that when Quentin Collins finds my heart, I can come back...Over a century ago, the first Quentin Collins built a stairway to traverse time, opening the way to countless realms of past and fortune. Now a new stairway has appeared at Collinwood, and the present-day Quentin is drawn to explore its dark path, forging an unlikely alliance with Angelique. Can she use her powers to help him, even at the risk of her own damnation?

At the heart of all legends lies a sense of wonder . . . the perception of awe-inspiring power . . . the recognition of something larger than life. Here you will find heroic action and adventure blended with daring excursions into the hearts of depravity, lust, beauty, and grandeur, all seamlessly woven into legends bound for the 21st century and beyond.

At the heart of all legends lies a sense of wonder . . . the perception of awe-inspiring power . . . the recognition of something larger than life. Here you will find heroic action and adventure blended with daring excursions into the hearts of depravity, lust, beauty, and grandeur, all seamlessly woven into legends bound for the 21st century and beyond.

Devastated and homeless after a personal tragedy, Courtney Edmiston accepts an invitation to stay with her old college friend Jan Blackburn. Jan lives with her brother David and their eccentric Aunt Martha on the edge of the Dismal Swamp, near Fearing, North Carolina. There Courtney soon discovers that the Blackburns have tragedies and enemies of their own. Plus there is the strange, monstrous, looming figure she keeps glimpsing in the swap. Is this the ghostly entity known only as the Monarch? Is it friend . . . or deadly foe?