Untouchable by Linda Winstead Jones

Back when the Royal Twins, Alixander and Jahn Beckyt, were born, the two babies were given a prophecy. One would battle with darkness all his life, and the other would be of life and light. Taken from the Palace and raised to be soldiers, Prince Jahn, the eldest, now holds the throne of Columbyana, and his advisors have been urging him to wed and produce heirs to the throne. Since Prince Jahn had problems with drinking and gambling, and his brother is most upright and honorable, most people assume that Prince Jahn is the one who will wrestle with the darkness in his life. But those people are wrong.

Alix is sent to the distant land of Tryfyn to escort the youngest Princess, Edlyn, back to the capital for inspection and possibly becoming the Empress of Columbyana. However, along with Edlyn, her father the King sends Jahn another present, a woman named Sanura, who is the perfect courtesan, able to see into men's souls and read their deepest desires and fulfill them. Because she meant to be with one man exclusively, her skin, every inch of it, is painted blue, and any man found to be with a blue stain on his skin is killed by her two guardians. Most men want her, and women are very jealous of her beauty and sensuality. The king is giving her to Jahn because his own wife cannot stand the presence of Sanura in her house, and Sanura can tell she is constantly thinking of ways to murder her.

Alix reads the pleading in Sanura's gaze and reluctantly accepts the gift on behalf of his brother. But Princess Edlyn objects to having Sanura along, and when her father tells her she can choose between Jahn or another older man of her land who offered for her hand, she chooses Jahn. But she isn't going to go out of her way to make the trip easy for anyone. Since she cannot stand the thought of Sanura near her, her palanquin travels in the back of the line, and Sanura rides on her horse, sidesaddle, in front.

The Palanquin is a slow and clumsy method of travel, and Alix is almost ready to kill her before long, as all she seems to do is offer up a litany of complaints. But Sanura is silent and dignified and he has no objections to riding near her. He is attracted to her, and despite knowing she is forbidden to him by belonging to his brother, and the restrictions of her body paint and guardians, he wants her.

Sanura finds herself intrigued by Alix, by the darkness she can see living inside his soul. She questions him about it, and he talks to her, very reluctantly, as he has been hiding this part of him for years behind a calm and patient facade. But the nearness of Sanura, and the very property of being forbidden, brings out the dark part of his soul, which calls itself Trystan, after the name Alix lived under when being a soldier. Sanura can also sense hidden violence in Vyrn, one of the Sentinels under Alix's command. She is sure that Vyrn is planning something, but what, she cannot be sure.

That comes to a head after Trystan takes control of Alix's words and castigates Edlyn for her constant whining and complaints. That night, Vyrn has Tavi, an ugly maid who he has seduced with promises of love and marriage, kill Princess Edlyn after drugging Sanura. Vyrn has similarly drugged Prince Alix and stolen his dagger, which Tavi used to kill Edlyn, and she left behind a piece of cloth stained with Sanura's blue skin pigment. The next morning Vyrn and Tavi accuse Alix and Sanura of being lovers and conspiring to kill Edlyn. Sanura feels she has no choice but to call on Trystan and asks him not to kill anyone, but to allow their escape. They do so, but in the process, he touches and manhandles her to cover himself with her blue pigment, making her guards want to kill him. Then they escape into the woods together.

When Trystan fades back into Alix, he can no longer deny that the dark part of himself is breaking free and attempts to maintain control while taking Sanura and riding as fast as they can back to Columbyana. But Trystan cannot be pushed back under Alix's control for much longer. When he finally decides to take over Alix for good, can Sanura find a way to deal with his black-souled man who is a part of the wonderful, honorable man she fell in love with? Can she support Alix when he decides to kill his brother and become Emperor? And as he loses interest when she is no longer forbidden to him, can she find a way to use her body to keep control over him, or was the battle lost when she called on him to find a way to escape? Can Sanura find a way to integrate the two parts of the man she loves into one, or is she forever stuck with Trystan?

This was an interesting book. Sanura is so sure of her life at the beginning, but by coming to love Alix, she soon finds that her former life was more constricting than she may have thought. But that concern is soon overtaken by trying to deal with Trystan, Prince Alix's darker self, who, while he may want her because of the spice of her being forbidden, is *not* the man she is falling in love with. He frightens her, even as she finds herself giving into his demands and making love with both parts of him.

This novel isn't all about Alix and Sanura, though. Prince Jahn has sent out several messengers to escort brides back to the Palace for an appraisal, but it seems that someone is trying to deny Jahn the chance to wed and have children, and the book makes it pretty clear who that is, in the thoughts of Vyrn, at least. There is also a thread with Vyrn and Tavi that ends badly for the both of them (no surprise there, anyway) and one with a girl named Laris who is foretold to be the wife of a great man of humble beginnings. Since the Emperor spent many years as a common soldier, her family take that to mean that she will be Empress, and send her off, giving her a necklace that will bring her luck and blessings, and a potion that will ensure the love of the Emperor, should she get him to ingest it. Complicatione ensue, however, when she gives a pinch of the potion to one of her Sentinels, figuring that a man in love with her will do all he could to protect her.

With Linda Winstead-Jones writing books in threes, it's sure that there will be two sequels to this book, although it doesn't look like the Emperor will marry any of the girls featured in the other two, but perhaps he'll fall for a minor character at some point. I look forward to the next book in the series, 22 nights, and the as yet unnamed third book. I've enjoyed this book series since I read the first book, The Sun Witch, a few years ago, and it just keeps on getting better. If you like romances, you'll enjoy this book, and all three series about Columbyana.