Like Wind Among Withered Branches. Book 1

The empire is torn apart by a plague epidemic. Riеtta Tristi loses her husband and little daughter and finds herself in the power of the cold and inhuman Count Casaria. When he dies, a sentence is spoken in his will: bury Riеtta alive next to him. But right before the burial, an archduke—Killian Axias—arrives at the castle. He is a formidable ruler famed for cruelty. He comes to collect a massive debt from the deceased count—and unexpectedly chooses a different way of repayment: he takes Riеtta with him. Ahead lies a road into the unknown, and the girl has only one wish: to repay her savior for his interference. Is it possible that between a man who cannot love and a woman who has already lost her love, feelings could nevertheless be born—feelings that might become salvation for both of them?