THE GIRL WHO KILLED ME “If you’re going to die, at least have the decency not to wake up and disturb your killer.” The voice was low, amused, and very close. Adrian Vale opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. His head throbbed as if someone had used it as an anvil. Cold stone pressed against his back. The air stank of burnt incense and, underneath it, something coppery and old. When he tried to breathe in, a line of fire tore across his chest. He looked down. A fine white shirt, soaked dark with blood. In the middle of it, a ragged wound gaped where no wound should have been. Okay, he thought, with the calm of a man who had not yet understood anything. That’s a lot of blood. A woman was crouched beside him. She was beautiful the way a blade is beautiful, all sharp lines and cold light. Two black horns curved back from her forehead through hair the colour of midnight. Her eyes were crimson and unblinking, and in her right hand she held a dagger slick with something that w

MY FIRST ENEMY IS HUMANThe man with the scar did not look like someone who enjoyed his work. That made him worse.“Captain Roderic,” Adrian’s borrowed memory supplied. Head of the household guard. Taught you to hold a sword when you were nine. You hated him because he never let you win.Great, Adrian thought. A man with a long history of disappointing me.“Young master,” Roderic said. There was no warmth in the title. “You are supposed to be dead.”“Disappointing, I know.”The captain’s eyes sharpened. It was not the answer he had expected. “Your father’s orders were clear. The heir who summoned a forbidden demon was executed by it, and every trace of that disgrace is to be destroyed. The chamber. The demon. The body.” His gaze rested on Adrian’s bloodied shirt. “I was told you would be cold by the time we arrived.”“That’s very thorough of him.”“Silence.”Roderic raised a hand, and the soldiers fanned out in a quiet half-circle. Eight swords. Eight shields. Eight men who had been t

MY FIRST DEMONIC ABILITYThe fortress was a ruin. Adrian worked that out within about five minutes of climbing out of the cellar.Crumbling walls. A roof with more sky than slate. Stairwells that ended in empty air and a courtyard where a tree had pushed up through the flagstones and gone on to enjoy a very successful life. Whatever House Vale had used this place for, it had been abandoned long ago, and the only things that lived here now were moss and the occasional startled bird.Beyond the broken gate, a forest stretched out in every direction. Tall, dark, and old. The trees stood so close together that the afternoon light came down in thin green threads.“Fresh air,” Adrian said, and breathed it in as if it might be taxed. “I’d forgotten how good it is.”“You were dead for an hour.”“It was a long hour.”Nyra walked ahead of him, favouring her right side, her hand resting on her dagger. She hadn’t spoken since the cellar, and he’d learned not to take it personally. She just seemed

THE VAMPIRE GIRL WITH A SECRET“Don’t move,” Adrian said. “I’ve got you.”“Thank you,” the girl said, in a voice so calm it almost sounded bored. “I would prefer not to be crushed.”It took the two of them to lift the carriage. Adrian braced his shoulder against the splintered wood, and Nyra, who had arrived with a scowl and a smear of monster ichor on her cheek, simply grabbed the other side and heaved. The whole thing rose a foot and came down on its side with a crash. The girl slid out, coughed, and sat up in the dirt.For a moment, she simply looked at them.She was beautiful, but not in the sharp, burning way Nyra was. Seraphine’s beauty was quiet. It was a still lake at night. Her hair fell to her waist in a sheet of silver, her skin was pale as milk, and her eyes were a deep and steady red. She wore a travelling gown that was torn at the sleeve and stained with soot, and she carried it as if it were the finest silk.“I am Seraphine,” she said. “I owe you both a debt.”“Adrian.”