Shadow of the Fox

A fox shapeshifter sworn to hide a mysterious scroll. A secret assassin under orders to kill to obtain it. One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single, terrible wish--and the Empire of Iwagoto was thrown into an age of darkness and chaos. Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn. Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her true nature. Half kitsune, half human, Yumeko has a skill with illusion that is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee with the temple's greatest treasure--one part of the ancient scroll. Mysterious samurai Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan is under orders to retrieve the scroll at any cost. When chance brings them together, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. Knowing he seeks what she has hidden away, Yumeko begins the deception of a lifetime. With an army of demons at her heels, and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko knows that her secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.