[Daughters of the Empire 01] • The Destiny Code · the Soldier and the Mystic (Daughters of the Empire Book 1)

A closet Victorian psychic is outcasted when she has a vision at her presentation ball. Fleeing to foreign lands, she encounters the last person she wants to see: the dark lord of her vision.

Miss Alita Stanton's presentation to society at the Queen's Ball in Buckingham Palace ends in ruination. While on the ballroom floor she is involuntarily possessed by a prophetic trance revealing the powerful Black Panther dying on a desultory foreign battlefield. Still dazed from the nightmarish scene, Alita recounts her experience and is outcasted on the most important day of her life, destroying her dreams and confirming her conviction it is necessary to keep her true nature hidden.

Socially shunned, Alita travels to a fashionable foreign venue while wagging tongues find other prey. Once in Egypt, she meets the last person she wants to see: Valerius Huntington, Captain of the Princess Royals' 7th Dragoon Guards, the 5th earl of Ravensdale,the man of her dreams, and the Black Panther of her vision.

Lord Captain Ravensdale, motivated by duty and honor, unknowingly kills an Egyptian friend in the Battle of Tel-El-Kebir, in the process creating two orphans. Val helps win Egypt and the Suez Canal for imperial Britain while simultaneously entering the dark night of the soul.

Alita can see Val's destiny, but procuring his future would be the end to hers. The academic earl of Ravensdale and Princess Royals' captain will not marry a quack or a soothsayer. Her sight is clear on this.

Romantic historical fiction with a shade of magical realism. *Characters who come alive on the page, witty dialogue, historical immersion, fast-paced action, and a touch of mystery. *

The daughter of each union is the heroine of the next novel in the "Daughters of the Empire" series.