Trial By Fire

Clara Dune is haunted by the recent loss of her mother and suspicions that she may be adopted. She desperately wants to confront her father, but when he suddenly dies after a solar eclipse on her fifteenth birthday, she and her younger sister, Zandra, are left to live with their grandmother, Ellie, in America’s oldest city, St. Augustine, Florida. Now Clara must not only cope with the loss of her parents but search for proof of her adoption. Her soul needs to know the truth, but her journey will be harder than she imagined. Before her father’s death, he gave her The Ancient Book of Saint Augustine, a mysterious old tome that highlights a centuries-old battle between Augustine, the saint, and his nemesis, Faustus, who is eternally locked in the abyss. Her father also left one more thing behind. It was his greatest archaeological find ever: a golden bottle adorned with two angels called the Bottle of Asturias. Now Clara struggles to understand the ancient book – while at the same time protecting a Spanish relic so powerful that forces emerge to hunt down the artifact. And dark forces do emerge when Clara meets Garcia Martí, a pyromaniac Spaniard, who will try everything to kill her. She not only has to worry about the one who can kill her body – but the one who wants her soul, as Faustus emerges. Clara is now caught between hell and earth, and a 1600-year-old vendetta between Faustus and Augustine. It’s a conflict that could destroy the city of St. Augustine . . . and destroy her soul . . . before she can find out the truth of her adoption.