From USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and bewitching fairytale of discovering the darkness in the world, and the darkness within oneself. You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three 'saints' who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruellest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.

He called me his “mystery girl” on stream. Live. In front of thousands of viewers. The wildest part? I didn’t even know who he was. I was at my usual gaming café, grinding ranked matches in a popular MOBA game called NLA. But instead of celebrating my latest win, I was fuming. One of my teammates had spent the entire game spewing sexist insults at me, even though I carried the match and we won despite him. While the rank-up animation played on my screen, some guy walked up and tried to congratulate me. Tall, dark-haired, handsome, with a nerdy edge—usually, he’d be my type. But I barely glanced at him. After the night I’d had, I wasn’t in the mood to entertain more fragile male egos. Turns out, that guy was MnstrX. Yeah, that MnstrX. The most famous pro gamer in the NLA scene. The guy who’s won every single major tournament in the game—twice. And now, he’s on his stream, calling me his “mystery girl” and offering to coach me. What do you even do when the best NLA player in the world asks to coach you? You say yes. What started as “just coaching” quickly became something more. Alex Thorne—aka MnstrX—turned out to be thoughtful, kind, and way more down-to-earth than I expected. And if you think climbing the ranks in a competitive video game is hard, try navigating a secret relationship with one of the biggest names in esports.

He called me his “mystery girl” on stream. Live. In front of thousands of viewers. The wildest part? I didn’t even know who he was. I was at my usual gaming café, grinding ranked matches in a popular MOBA game called NLA. But instead of celebrating my latest win, I was fuming. One of my teammates had spent the entire game spewing sexist insults at me, even though I carried the match and we won despite him. While the rank-up animation played on my screen, some guy walked up and tried to congratulate me. Tall, dark-haired, handsome, with a nerdy edge—usually, he’d be my type. But I barely glanced at him. After the night I’d had, I wasn’t in the mood to entertain more fragile male egos. Turns out, that guy was MnstrX. Yeah, that MnstrX. The most famous pro gamer in the NLA scene. The guy who’s won every single major tournament in the game—twice. And now, he’s on his stream, calling me his “mystery girl” and offering to coach me. What do you even do when the best NLA player in the world asks to coach you? You say yes. What started as “just coaching” quickly became something more. Alex Thorne—aka MnstrX—turned out to be thoughtful, kind, and way more down-to-earth than I expected. And if you think climbing the ranks in a competitive video game is hard, try navigating a secret relationship with one of the biggest names in esports.

"Have you ever wondered how long it would take for a lethal dose of arsenic to kill you? Thirty-five hours, twenty-nine minutes, and fifteen seconds. I should know. I counted myself." Amidst the gaslit alleys and cobblestone streets of Victorian London, two killers find themselves entangled in a waltz they cannot escape. Alina Lis, a botanist and hobbyist poisoner, has a pastime of killing unsavory men in her twisted sense of poetic justice. When she targets the conceited playboy, Silas Forbes, only to find him in her apothecary the following week, she discovers human men are the least of her problems. The pair’s unlikely association sparks gossip among affluent society. As their mysterious bond deepens, a chilling truth emerges—concealed identities, lurking foes, and questions as plentiful as the hydra’s head brew within this haunting Gothic tale of violent passion. Will Silas and Alina find themselves in each other's arms, or will the shadows of their past keep them apart?