Tamara Geraeds

Lyra Dovemant keeps her hands steady as the first domino of the night clicks into place. A whispered bargain threads through the candlelit hall: a life saved, a debt owed, a promise to keep the dead from speaking. The rooms she moves through hum with the memory of old wrongs and the tremor of new threats, as a demon’s return casts a brittle glow on the city’s secrets. When a chance encounter with a haunted relic forces her to confront a choice she has tried to bury, Lyra discovers that some powers do not bow to law or loyalty, only to the ritual that feeds them. In this city where every face hides a lash of truth, she must decide who she will become when the veil parts and the First Demon’s shadow steps forward, choosing for her what kind of fate she will deserve.