Phoebe faced the toughest decision of her life. She could let her mother continue as she was, and risk the destruction of the empire her ancestors built, or she could usurp the other amazon, take the reins of the empire, and hope it wasn't too late to stop the collapse. Neither choice appealed to her, but she had a responsibility to the people of Hellene. Her mother might have become insane, but that didn't mean it would be easy to take her throne away from her. With Andromeda's insanity came paranoia, and it made moving against the empress harder than it seemed. There was one group that might be able to help. The rebels to the south, the people that had sought refuge with the werewolves from the Shimmering Forest, and maybe the wolves themselves. She doubted an alliance with them would be easy, they had no reason to trust her, so she would have to take the first step and go to them. Negotiations proved to be quicker than she expected them to, but was the price they asked of her one she was willing to pay?