The Witcher meets Naomi Novik in this fast-paced fantasy rooted in Slavic folklore, from an assured new voice in genre fiction
As
a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice
taming rusalkas, fighting kikimoras, and brewing lycanthrope repellent.
There’s only one monster Kosara can’t defeat: her ex the Zmey, known as
the Tsar of Monsters. She’s defied him one too many times, and now he’s
hunting her. Betrayed to him by someone close to her, Kosara’s only
hope is to trade her shadow—the source of her powers—for illegal passage
across the Wall to Belograd, where monsters can’t follow.
Life
in Belograd should be sweet, but Kosara soon develops a fast-acting
version of the deadly wasting sickness that stalks shadowless
witches—and only reclaiming her magic can cure her. To trace her shadow,
she’ll have to team up with the suspiciously honorable detective
investigating the death of the smuggler who brought her across the Wall.
Even
worse than working with the cops is that all the clues point in a
single direction: one of the Zmey’s monsters has found a crack in the
Wall, and Kosara’s magic is now in the Zmey’s hands.
The
clock is ticking, the hunt is on, and Kosara’s priorities should be
clear—but is she the hunter or the hunted? And in a city where everyone
is out for themselves, who can Kosara trust to assist her in outwitting
the man—the Monster—she’s never been able to escape alone?
