When Sir Isaac Newton uncovered the secrets of alchemy, he could never have imagined the incredible and tragic results. Dark sorcery rules: Europe is lost and the American colonists have been driven south by advancing ice. In an age of unreason, Benjamin Franklin and his secret society, the Junto, manage a precarious existence founded on the mutual trust and cooperation of Native Americans, whites, and freed blacks. But the demonic creatures known as the Malekim won't tolerate even a flicker of hope. For any who oppose them--Franklin, Voltaire, even the mysterious daughters of Lilith--will be swept away . . .

Though Tsar Peter the Great of Russia has mysteriously vanished, his vast armies and dark magics remain. They strike where they are least expected, unleashing cyclopean forces unseen on Earth since before the fall of mighty Babylon. And even this is but a prelude to he who follows the living storm.

As armies and alchemy clash in the southern colonies, the Choctaw shaman Red Shoes is drawn west by a vision of an ancient, implacable evil, and of a young boy who shines as brightly as an angel . . . the fallen, avaricious kind.

From the Trade Paperback edition.