Destiny's Blood

Marie Bilodeau knocks my socks off. She's got an amazing eye for detail and a
sumptuous narrative voice. Destiny's Blood is a winner — another home
run from one of Canada's best new authors. --Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo
Award-winning author of WAKE

A thief of valuable blooms, Layela's dream is finally coming true with the opening of her flower shop on the small remote planet of Collar. But the disappearance of her twin sister leaves her with a difficult choice: to continue tending to her blooms and promising future, or to blend in once again with the shadows to find her sister.
She soon becomes the prey of two powerful assassins, of a colonel bent on revenge and of a mysterious sword-wielding stranger. Her only allies are Josmere – a feisty ether creature with the power to unlock the visions that assault Layela's mind, or to keep them from her – and a smuggling rogue, Ardin, hired to protect Layela at whatever the cost, even if that cost is her freedom.
Their journey takes them across several worlds as Layela discovers who she and her sister truly are. And before them awaits the mythical First Star, on a path to self-destruction and the annihilation of all life.
Unless Layela finds a way to stop it. But to stop it would mean sacrificing her sister.
Or herself.