The three original spellbooks, source of all magic in the world, have been found, and Ray Lilly has already 'acquired' one. Now he and Annalise are on a historic mission to get the other two and they're ready to kill anyone who gets in their way.
If they succeed, the Twenty Palace Society will become more powerful than it has ever been and could truly safeguard humanity from both extra-dimensional predators and the people who summon them.
But this time their enemies are more formidable than any they've ever faced before. What starts as a covert mission to hunt sorcerers quickly collapses into a desperate-and very public-struggle to survive. Can Ray and Annalise track down and kill these sorcerers before they execute a plan to drive the human race to the edge of extinction?
Stormy Bay is a dying town nestled against an eerily placid ocean, and Ray Lilly is trapped in it. He can barely remember his name let alone his mission for the Twenty Palace society. Worse, he realizes that for some time now he's been living as a puppet, his body and mind under the complete domination of an unknown power, and the townsfolk think this puppet is his real identity.
And that power can still seize control of Ray's body at any time, forcing him and the people around him to playact in nonsense stories that center around a mysterious boy and his monster dog.
The town and its people shift and change, but only Ray seems to notice. He has no idea what sort of magic has imprisoned all these ordinary folks in Stormy Bay, but he does know he needs to get them, and himself, out.
But that might mean crossing a line he has never crossed before. While Ray has certainly taken lives in his work for the society, it was always in self-defense or in the desperate moments before impending calamity. Can he bring himself to commit cold-blooded murder, even to save dozens of lives?
When Ray Lilly was thirteen years old, a handgun accident landed his best friend, Jon Burrows, in a wheelchair and turned Ray into a runaway and petty criminal. Fifteen years later, Ray returns home after a stint in prison; he;s determined to go straight, but he knows he can;t do that without making peace with his old friend.
What Ray doesn't expect is that Jon has just received a mysterious cure-not only is he out of his wheelchair, he seems stronger and faster than . . . well, pretty much anyone. Worse, his cure has drawn the attention of all sorts of powerful people: the media are camped out on his block, the police are investigating him for insurance fraud, and weird shadowy figures have begun to draw closer, figures who clearly do not mean to do Jon any good.
Can Ray atone for the biggest mistake of his life by protecting his oldest friend? And what terrible price will the world have to pay if he succeeds?
As a child, Kyrioc was groomed to be the head of one of the most powerful noble families in Koh-Salash, a city built inside the skeletons of two murdered gods. Kyrioc himself dreamed of becoming head of the High Watch, the highest political position in the land.
Those dreams have turned to dust.
Presumed dead after a disastrous overseas quest, Kyrioc now lives in a downcity slum under a false name, hiding behind the bars of a pawnshop window. Riliska, a nine-year-old pickpocket who sells stolen trinkets to his shop, is the closest thing he has to a friend.
When a criminal gang kills Riliska's mother and kidnaps the little girl, Kyrioc goes hunting for her.
He doesn't care about the forbidden magic the gangs are fighting over-the severed ear of a glitterkind, a creature whose flesh contains astonishing healing powers. He doesn't care about the bloody, escalating gang violence. He doesn't care about the schemes of power-hungry nobles.
In a raging city on the verge of civil war, Kyrioc only wants to save his friend. He will risk anything for her, even awakening the powers that murdered the gods so long ago.
