The antimatter that fuels the colony is running low, and Marshall wants his bomb back. It may be sunny now, but winter is coming. Instead of cleaning out the reactor core, he spends his time these days cleaning out the rabbit hutches. The lichens are growing, the six-winged bat-things are chirping, and much to his own surprise, Mickey Barnes is still alive-that last part thanks almost entirely to the fact that Commander Marshall believes that the colony’s creeper neighbors are holding an antimatter bomb, and that Mickey is the only one who’s keeping them from using it. And even as Lore makes her way through the Sainted court above, they might be drawing closer than she thinks. 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.īut the life she left behind in the catacombs is catching up with her. Lore is thrust into the Sainted King’s glittering court, where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted. Lore can either use her magic to find out what’s happening and who in the King’s court is responsible, or die. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore fully expects a pyre, but King August has a different plan. 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. 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. Easier said than done, when her death magic ties her to the city. And in the ten years since, she’s lived by one rule: don’t let them find you. When Lore was thirteen, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. What are you most excited to read this next month? Goodreads recently shared their list of the sci-fi and fantasy books that Goodreads members are most excited about for the month.

The Faithless by C.L. Clark