Hell's Princess Plays House

Seraphine, the princess of Nightsdeep, holds power over life and death there, and what she wants is the Nether Pearl. It has been shattered and its pieces are scattered through the Pyralis Empire. She takes over the body of the empire's eldest princess, and by accident ends up in bed with Draven, the Regent Prince. The Emperor, the princess's brother, lies in a coma, and the pearl is what would wake him. From then on she and Draven work the same problems: why the Emperor will not wake, a case at a temple where corpses are rendered into oil, and where the pieces of the pearl have gone. Sorcery and ghosts turn up in the palace, and the plotting at court runs alongside them. Both of them are hiding what they are, and over time each starts to work out the other's real identity. A mix of love and hate starts to grow between them. There is also something between them left over from a previous life.