Click for the Kindle Edition: https://amzn.to/4x4pY7T
Click for the hardcover Edition:https://amzn.to/4x4pY7T
Click for the paperback Edition: https://amzn.to/4x4pY7T
Click for the audiobook Edition: https://amzn.to/4x0xlgG
When Lore was thirteen, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. And in the ten years since, she’s lived by one rule: don’t let them find you. Easier said than done, when her death magic ties her to the city.
Mortem, the magic born from death, is a high-priced and illicit commodity in Dellaire, and Lore’s job running poisons keeps her in food, shelter, and relative security. But when a run goes wrong and Lore’s power is revealed, she’s taken by the Presque Mort, a group of warrior-monks sanctioned to use Mortem working for the Sainted King. Lore fully expects a pyre, but King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what’s happening and who in the King’s court is responsible, or die.
Lore is thrust into the Sainted King’s glittering court, where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted. Guarded by Gabriel, a duke-turned-monk, and continually running up against Bastian, August’s ne’er-do-well heir, Lore tangles in politics, religion, and forbidden romance as she attempts to navigate a debauched and opulent society.
But the life she left behind in the catacombs is catching up with her. And even as Lore makes her way through the Sainted court above, they might be drawing closer than she thinks.
Lore’s pale face, brown-blond hair, hazel eyes, moon-shaped crescent burn scar on her palm; she’s painted in scars
Val’s pale face, green eyes, gold hair, and a scarf that faded through the years; adoptive mother to Lore, along with her wife Mari
Mari has long dark braids and is golden brown-skinned; brown eyes; adoptive mother to Lore, married to Val.
Michal has blue eyes, is one of Gilbert’s runners, older brother to Elle.
Elle has golden curls, is a dancer, and is the younger sister to Michal.
Pierre, pale-faced, freckled, the youngest son of the landlord in the harbor district.
Jean paul red haired been running before Lore came into the picture.
Bloodcoats: protectors of the citadel.
Curly mustache, burly man, pale face, leader of the Bloodcoats.
Gabriel, red-gold-haired, lit candle burned into each palm, one blue eye, the other covered by an eye patch, broad-shouldered, muscular
Malcolm, shaved head, walnut brown-skinned arms covered in scars.
Anton Arceneaux: iron gray hair, brown eyes; one side of his face is handsome, angelic, but the other side of his face is scarred, burned; a golden pendant with the sun rays over his heart in white robes, the Priest Exalted, leader of the church, King August’s twin brother.
August Arceneaux, Sainted King, iron gray hair, deep brown eyes, trimmed beard, Anton’s twin brother
Bastain Arceneaux: dark-haired, honey brown eyes, strong jaw, golden sun bronze, white-skinned,
Alienor: blonde white curls, clear eyes, warm copper skin, Daughter to Severin Bellegarde
Severin Bellegarde: milk-pale skin, wood-brown hair, pin-straight; his expression stern, father to Alienor Bellegarde
I give this book a 1.0 out of 5 stars. The first chapter was slow, then once I passed that, it spiked a little, then went down again. This book was not for me. I love the fantasy part, but there was no thrill or a pace to keep me reading nonstop.
🌹Dark Romance🌹 