Salome Visaya is nothing and no one—at least, that’s what the Alliance want her to think. A criminal organization that has trained her since childhood, the Alliance made her a creature of cunning and greed, and now offers Salome a shot at the con of a lifetime. All she has to do is assume a secret identity, Rosalia d’Ilumias, and play the blushing bride-to-be. And the target? King Vincent d’Allorias of the war-ravaged kingdom of Ilarya. Three months of her life—three months to charm the King and the nobles, to weasel her way into his confidence, and to rob him and his treasury blind. It should be an easy job, the kind that she was born to play, but when a witch approaches her in the dark and awakens something inside her, everything changes. The court is alive with demons made of shadows, and Salome might be the only one with power to save Ilarya—and the world—from the ancient forces that threaten them.
Author
Kay Costales is a Toronto-based, queer Filipina author and poet represented by Lesley Sabga of the Seymour Agency. As a child of immigrants, it is important to her to always provide queer Filipino diaspora representation in her stories. She graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Criminology but doesn’t use her degree for anything. You can usually find her constantly daydreaming about dark but magical things, with a little bit of whimsy and romance. Also publishes under Kess Costales.
