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"When you have the Gift, your life is not your own."

I was born to a family that harnessed the winds and could read futures in fire and water. Yet my mother kept her secrets.

Then the werewolf came, sharing his madness.

Now it's my turn to keep secrets....

Descended from powerful magic-users, but ignorant of her heritage, young Alfreda Sorensson learns magic and wisdom from her extended family in an alternate early 1800s Michigan Territory.

The werewolves came shattering the peace of the village of Sun Return. Five were taken before the girl's parents agreed to give her up. They called in Cousin Cory, Aunt Marta, all the known practitioners. The ones who could teach me how to hide in a leaf, dip into minds, and find the secret herbs that heal. Her childhood now over, the girl must face the Dark of the Other Side.

"...we are all Death's pupils, we practitioners--students of the great healer."

When magic broke free in my blood, I chose to follow our ancient family path and become a practitioner. I'm learning to heal, and to protect innocents. I dip into minds, stalk vampires, and set wards by the light of the moon. I can hear the children of the night calling.

But there are other families...and other paths. Families with twisted ambitions and frightening powers. On the frontier, folk whisper that one clan is the most dangerous of all.

Chief among those dark sorcerers is a man known as the Keeper of Souls.

And now he wants to keep mine.

Alfreda Sorensson has survived her first major test as a woman of power and returns to visit her family. No longer a child, she must now deal with a poltergeist infesting her family house and run for freedom when a handsome young man kidnaps her for his clan leader. Kindred Rites is a tale of powerful magic and compelling humanity, with a young heroine and an unusual historical setting.

The world is woven of secrets.

I was born with lightning in one hand and mercy in the other, but what I need is the pattern to my tapestry of power.

Danger drove me from the primeval American wilderness to Windward Academy, where the Wizard of Manhattan offers me one last chance to learn magical control. Windward--where every word, every breath is a test. Every lesson can be deadly. And every challenge can explode out of the schoolroom and into the realms of demons.

Sometimes a shadow is so dark it arrives before the sun.