AN ANCIENT EVIL RETURNS TO THE DESERT LANDS OF THE CRUSADES, & ONLY THE TEENAGERS CLARINDA & RÍG CAN PREVENT THE COMING OF THE FINAL TWILIGHT! The Codex Lacrimae, a book of ancient evil, is loose again in the world. It’s the 12th Century, and Crusades ravage the Middle East. When the Book of Tears reaches the castle Krak des Chevaliers, it need only touch the unwitting hands of the prophesied Codex Wielder to ignite the Final Twilight. But hope remains -- the Norns foretell that two teenagers might stop the impending disaster! Ríg, an 18-year-old Hospitaller apprentice training to be a warrior-monk in the castle’s library, seeks only a quiet existence because of a haunted past. The arrival of the Codex Lacrimae and its supernatural temptations will force him to choose between the peaceful path of a priest or violent ways of a warrior. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, 17-year-old Clarinda Trevisan is a beautiful Venetian sea merchant’s daughter who is content to sail with her father’s fleet throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Soon it won’t be cargoes and crews occupying her time, but rather the strange creatures of Norse mythology, the Witches of Fate, the magical Nine World, and a tempestuous relationship with Ríg himself! The return of the Codex Lacrimae unleashes a host of evils that might challenge even the most star-crossed of lovers. Besides threatening Ríg and Clarinda’s lives (and immortal souls!), the Huntsmen of Muspelheim, Hela and her Wilde Jagd, and the Dragon Fafnir are all acting in concert with an unknown figure whose dark designs have been centuries in the making – but, for that plan to begin, he needs Ríg to awaken the first of nine magical artifacts that will open a Rune Gate to the Nightmare Realm and consume all reality in flames! If the two teenagers can’t stop their enemies, they’ll find the worlds of the Multiverse at the brink of annihilation!