Necromancy, vengeance, and a bloody battle for the throne rage in the sequel to Innamorata, a gorgeous and extravagantly grimdark gothic fantasy from the Sunday Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and Lady Macbeth

Once there was a kingdom riven by doomed love: The forbidden affair between Prince Liuprand and Agnes, scion of the House of Teeth, ended in strife, tragedy, and death.

But death is not yet done with the kingdom: Liuprand lives, and his love for Agnes lives within him, and he will do anything to sit the throne with his fallen queen.

In the black peaks of her ancestral home, Marozia names herself queen. Consumed by grief for Agnes and by her unfettered ambition, she seeks out a dark, ancient power that may cost more than she is prepared to give.

In the east, Gamelyn, master of the House of Blood, is determined to right the injustices that have been committed against him. Bound to his destiny, he will endure profane ritual and face soul-shattering trials to forge himself into the sword that will either tear the realm further apart –or bind it again through blood.

Because in a kingdom whose legacy is necromancy and whose future is written in dread prophecy, death is never the end – and fate is illuminated by the cold light of resurrection.

‘Gorgeously gruesome . . . reads like the gory bones of a forgotten folktale.’ Jacqueline Carey, NYT bestselling author, on Innamorata

© Ava Reid 2027 (P) Penguin Audio 2027