Publisher Description
Dark rituals drag London mage Alex Verus into the center of a conspiracy in this thrilling novel from the national bestselling author of Marked.
Since his second sight made him infamous for defeating powerful dark mages, Alex Verus has been keeping his head down. But now he's discovered the resurgence of a forbidden ritual. Someone is harvesting the life-force of magical creatures—destroying them in the process. And draining humans is next on the agenda.
Hired to investigate, Alex discovers not everyone on the Council wants him delving any deeper. Struggling to distinguish ally from enemy, he finds himself the target of those who would risk their own sanity for power. Alex still has the advantage of seeing the future—but he might not have a future for much longer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jacka follows his urban fantasy debut, Fated, with an even more impressive tale of gunplay and spellcraft in present-day London. In a culture dominated by battle mages, Alex Verus's best offense is a good defense: he can see all possible futures, and he aims straight at the ones where he doesn't die. Both Light and Dark mages keep trying to hire him, but he just wants to run his magical trinket shop and teach his friend Luna how to manage her family curse. This dream is disrupted when a new friend of Luna's claims he can destroy the curse with a dangerous wish-granting artifact, and Alex learns that some unhinged mages want to steal life energy from the dwindling population of magical creatures including one of Alex's few friends, the charming room-sized spider Arachne. Jacka keeps the emotional tension high with a series of wakeup calls for Alex regarding his relationship with Luna, his place in London's magical social circles, and his image of himself. Readers will savor this tasty blend of magic, explosions, and moral complexity.