Sarah Zimm

A thrilling blend of fantasy and adventure from Readers Favorite® author Sarah Zimm takes her gritty, sexy, action-packed series to epic new heights. War is a dangerous game. Ophelia Dannan’s magic has reawakened, but at dire costs. Though she’s inherited the powers of a goddess, she’s haunted by the events in Wythe and the desperate choices she made to save the lives of her people. As war breaks out in Magus, she and Falcon lick their wounds in the Underbelly, waiting for word on Hart and Rune. There, Ophelia plots to end the centuries-old battle for the throne by unearthing and destroying three elusive primordial relics—but she isn’t the only one who seeks them. If the Gray King retrieves the instruments first, the magic-born will rot in endless servitude, and if the relics fall into the Darkwielder’s hands, his vengeance may obliterate every mortal. To save Magus from ruin, Ophelia finds herself making a bargain with a dangerous enemy—one that plunges her into a harrowing game of trust, politics, and dark secrets. To win, she’ll have to master her horrifying magic, mend her shattered soul, and decide how far she’ll go to shape her fate—or she and her kingdom will be destined for destruction. In a war between gods and monarchs, one will rise.

Perfect for fans of Shadow and Bone, A Darker Shade of Magic, and the grit of Gangs of New York, EVERY DARK SHADOW is book 1 in an epic dark fantasy series with slow-burn romance, found family, and a sprawling world of magic, mad kings, and beasts. Orphan turned fugitive Ophelia Dannan has been safely hidden in the mortal world for four years, her memories and magic locked away from herself and the siphoning Gray King of Magus. A king whose armies hunt relentlessly for one source of pure magic that vanished with Ophelia. A scholar, a smugger and a soldier have sworn their lives to hide and guard her until the time is right to awaken her magic. To protect her, they move her often and see to it Ophelia forgets the lives she lives with them. Rune chooses quiet farmsteads, filling Ophelia’s time with adventure and daydreams. Falcon prefers the grit of city streets ruled by gangs, challenging Ophelia to survive by wielding knives and swindling thieves. And Hart has all but given up his rotation with her, after what happened a year ago, to keep safe the girl he fears could destroy two worlds. But across worlds in a kingdom as dark and brutal as it is beautiful, where the Gray King enslaves the magic born, rebellion is stirring and a dark force is rising to stake its own claim on the throne. When shadows reach tendrils across the mortal world for Ophelia, she's pushed into a perilous quest in search of truth, her magic, and a way to break the monarchy before it breaks them all.

“Someday they will call you king.” Discover how a dark destiny unfolds in this mid-series villain prequel novella that starts where Every Dark Shadow left off and traverses back in time. Kier has lived all his life like a ghost, hidden away and unacknowledged by his only family, even as his sinister power is being sharpened as a weapon to wield in the king’s new Special Army. When Kier learns secrets about his ancestry he was never meant to unbury, he realizes just how treacherous the kingdom is growing for magic-born like him, and what he will have to sacrifice to claim his destiny. But the darkness that lies within may be the most difficult beast to slay.