The Black Pearl - The Black Pearl, #1

On a tense, dreary night, Rin is forced to care for a feverish Prince dropped in the middle of her kitchen floor. From there, she finds herself at the center of a nefarious plot by her vicious people to release a powerful evil. With the help of Rin's companion jaguar Pepper, she and the Prince escape with a pearl full of dark magic to seek help from the Sorceress of Crystal Palace. Along the way, they must work together to overcome obstacles: a fear-inducing mist, a rogue Sorceress, a curmudgeonly invisible man, a tribe of warriors, an impassable mountain range, and some unexpected magical powers, and that's just to get to the Palace.