Bitter Justice (The Samurai Revival Trilogy, Vol. 2)

Tessa now knows who was responsible for the murder of her best friend Penny, and is determined to make sure they are brought to justice. But while she hones her combat skills in Japan, the Calver Cats criminal gang concentrates on expanding their power base from Europe into Southeast Asia – with orders to take her head when they find her.

Soon caught up in the brutal contest, Tessa worries that she is losing sight of the high ideals that led her to accept the sword and become a Peacekeeper. More ominously still, she realises that there is a hidden agenda at work, vested interests spanning centuries and continents to which she is perhaps little more than a useful pawn. But as more of her friends fall, she is forced to accept that there is only one way to end this conflict – she must fight on.

Narrowly escaping death herself, she is appalled by what she must do to survive and win. But then, in the midst of misery and violence, a seed of hope is sown for the future and Tessa is entrusted with the most precious charge of all: to be protected regardless of cost.