Dear reader,

What you're about to read isn't your typical historical romance. There are no dukes, no highlanders, no rogues, but there are knights; they wear jaguar skins rather than steel armor. There are kings and commoners, war and politics, and of course, most importantly of all, there is love. All of the makings of a fine romance.

The history presented in this book doesn’t follow real history though. It is instead an alternate history, which is built upon taking a pivotal historical event and asking “What if?” What if Rome hadn’t fallen? What if the South had won the Civil War? Or what if the Nazis had won World War II? This story is built upon the question: what if the Spanish Conquest had been averted? What would have become of history’s major players?

The hero and heroine are both real historical figures. Cuauhtemoc (Nahuatl for "Falling Eagle") was the very last emperor (huey tlatoani) of the Aztec empire and he was executed by Hernán Cortés under suspicion of trying to raise a revolt in the aftermath of the destruction of Tenochtitlan, the former Aztec capital, on which present-day Mexico City was founded. Malinali (the Nahuatl word for "Grass") is a more widely-known figure; to the Spanish she was La Malinche, the woman who helped Cortés conquer the mighty Aztec empire. History—and literature—has rarely been kind in judging her actions and motivations.

In real life, these two iconic figures were enemies, but what if events had played out differently? Let's find out!