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First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2017
Copyright © Neverafter PTY LTD 2017
Cover Layout Design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
Cover Illustration © Kerby Rosanes
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Jay Kristoff asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008180065
Ebook Edition © September 2017 ISBN: 9780008180058
Version: 2018-06-04
Good turn to you, gentlefriends. Itâs lovely to see you again.
I confess, I missed you in our time apart. And now, reunited, would that I could simply greet you with a smile, and let you be about the business of murder and revenge and occasional lashings of tastefully written smut. But before we slip back between the pages together, I should impart a warning true.
Memory is a traitor, and a liar, and a good-for-nothing thief. And though our dramaâs cast is doubtless inked indelibly on your psyche, we must sometimes make allowances for the lesser among you mortals.
So, perhaps a refresher is in order?
Mia Corvereâassassin, thief, and heroine of our taleâif our tale can be said to have one at all. Her father, Darius, was executed under order of the Itreyan Senate and, vowing vengeance, she became a disciple of the Republicâs most feared cult of assassins, the Red Church.
Though she failed the Churchâs trials, Mia was inducted as a Blade (aka assassin) after rescuing the Churchâs ministry during an assault by Luminatii legionaries.
Mia is of mixed Itreyan-Liisian blood. She is also darkinâone who controls the darkness itself. She has little understanding of her powers, and the only other darkin she has ever met died before he could give her the answers she desired.
Tragic, I know.
Mister Kindlyâa daemon, passenger, or familiar (depending on who one asks) made of shadows, who eats Miaâs fear. He saved her life as a child, and claims to know very little about his true nature, though heâs been known to lie from time to time.
He wears the shape of a cat, though he is nothing close to a cat at all.
Eclipseâanother shadow daemon, who wears the guise of a wolf. Eclipse was passenger to Lord Cassius, former head of the Red Church. When Cassius died during the Luminatii assault, Eclipse bound herself to Mia instead.
Like most dogs and cats, she and Mister Kindly do not get along.
Old MercurioâMiaâs trainer and confidant in the time before she joined the Red Church. Mercurio was a Church Blade himself for many years, but is now retired in Godsgrave. The old Itreyan runs a store named Mercurioâs Curios and serves as an information broker and talent scout for the servants of the Black Mother.
A grumpier old bastard was never found under any of the three suns.
Tricâan acolyte of the Red Church, also Miaâs friend and lover. Tric was of mixed Itreyan-Dweymeri heritage. He was poised to be inducted into the Blades, but Ashlinn Järnheim stabbed him repeatedly in the heart and pushed him off the side of the Quiet Mountain.
As a promise to Tric, Mia assassinated Tricâs grandfather, Swordbreaker, king of the Dweymeri Isles, after the boyâs death.