Excalibur, a sword forged from the mystical island of Avalon, powerful and righteous, and meant to rid Britain of its evil. But nature demands balance, and so with Excalibur came Baedan, the ill-fated sword that was never meant to be found... While searching through ancient artifacts in an old museum, eighteen-year-old Katarina Cole is lured to the picture of a beautiful knight, whose malicious eyes and taunting joker's grin leave her mystified and infatuated. Doomed to an inquisitive nature, she soon learns that this face belongs to King Arthur's vanished cousin, Brendelon Beaumont. Told of the mysterious curse that incarcerated him into the portrait, pragmatic Katarina struggles to believe it, but as the story continues to haunt her, something draws her back. Moved by the power of a stone bracelet from the past, she suddenly finds herself to be in the very presence of this arrogant and daunting prince-who is anything but a typical fairytale knight in shining armor. But the curse that left him confined for centuries is far from over when a vortex unexpectedly lands them back in time to a mystical realm. Enchanted by the camaraderie of Arthur and his knights, Katarina quickly forgets this is not her home, but changing the past changes the future and when the formidable curse begins to unravel, revealing a dark secret that results in deadly consequences, they soon realize the return of this unscrupulous knight was no accident... Faced with challenges from giant trolls, deceiving fairies, magical bonds, and the wrath of a powerful sorceress, two unlikely companions must learn to put aside their differences and tormenting pasts to find the spell's undoing and the key to send Katarina home before the legend of King Arthur is changed forever. In the ultimate battle of good verse evil and discovering there is more beyond the crimson, this unexpected twist on the Arthurian tale will leave readers absolutely spellbound.