...THE DEVIL'S DANCE...
Strasbourg, 1518.
The city stands on the brink of collapse. Famine grips its people, plague stalks its alleys, and the Church’s authority trembles beneath the weight of fear. When dozens of citizens are suddenly seized by an inexplicable compulsion to dance, hour after hour, day after day, the streets become a stage for madness. Their feet bleed against the cobblestones, their bodies moving until they collapse.
The city’s priests call it punishment. The physicians call it sickness. But the truth is far darker.
Among the afflicted is Lyanna Troffea, a widow and mother whose endless dance will soon claim her life. Her daughter, Isabella, watches helplessly as superstition replaces mercy and the witch-hunters fill the air with smoke and screams.
Left alone and impoverished, Isabella is forced into the household of Martin Albrecht, son of a wealthy merchant, under the guise of protection. There, in silks and pearls, she becomes something less than free, a bride arranged and a possession disguised as privilege.
But the true prison lies not in the Albrecht home, but in Isabella’s own shadow. As the city burns witches to save its soul, a demon begins to visit her. An ancient presence that speaks from the darkness of her room. He promises an escape from marriage, from fear and from the Church’s chains. In him she finds both terror and temptation, a promise of power in a world that offers her none.
As the dancers multiply and the pyres rise higher, Isabella’s visions grow stronger. The demon’s whispers turn to embraces. Each night he presses closer. Meanwhile, witch-hunters and priests twist the chaos to their own ends, branding every woman, man and child touched by illness or fear as possessed.
Fire becomes Strasbourg’s cure and Isabella knows her own name will soon be added to the list.
Torn between her duty to God, her love for her dying mother and the unholy power that tempts her, she must make an impossible choice. Marry a man she does not love or join the demon who offers her freedom at the price of her soul.
This novel is a haunting blend of historical fact and dark fantasy. The Devil’s Dance explores faith, fear and the price of freedom in an age when women were silenced by men and sanctified by fire. It is a story of love, possession and sacrifice. It’s a story of a girl who becomes a bride not to man or demon, but to destiny itself.
COMING SOON...