Witch’s corpse. Witch’s ticket. Witch’s party. As a counter-boy at a high-end men’s boutique, Charlie Jessup’s life consists of little more than work and sleep. That, and enough flirting to help guarantee his commission on sales will pay his rent. So when a twist of fate, and some behavior unbecoming that of a Ganymede employee, leaves him in possession of a dead man’s pass to a mysterious Club 669, Charlie has no desire to waste it. Every seventeen years, the House of Witches throws a party like no other. It’s invitation-only, and for centuries it has helped ensure peace between the covens. It’s the last place Caspian wants to be, but with the death of Queen Avel, and his own imminent rise to the throne, it’s more important than ever that he attends. The stability of the House depends on it. In four days a new king will be crowned, but when Charlie unintentionally crashes a gathering of the most secretive of all the Great Houses, he sets in motion a series of events that could disrupt the transition of power, and threaten the future of the House of Witches forever.

Club 669

“You can trust Dax, Charlie. Who’s your family?”


“I don’t have one.” That answer didn’t seem to appease either of them. “I was up north before the conflict.” And that said it all. When war had ravaged the coast, children were packed up by the thousands and moved to safer territories. At sixteen, I’d been dropped in the city along with more kids than anyone knew what to do with. The youngest among us had been housed, the rest of us left to fend for ourselves. “When I say I have no people, I mean it.”


“There is something we haven’t considered.”


“The Fotia coven, they used to be practitioners of divination magic.” At my blank look, he tried to clarify. “Precognition. Future magic. Maybe they targeted you for your importance at some future point, and not the present. And,” he added, turning his attention back to Dax, “It was before our time, but Avel once told me there was trouble from that coven just before her coronation.”


Chapter 13