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

We heard a door slam in the back and I winced. “Shit. Too late.”


“May I?” Caspian pushed past me without waiting for permission from either of us and lifted his hands to place gentle fingers on Adam’s face. Adam wanted to pull away, I could see it, but when both Caspian’s hands began to glow the same blue they did whenever he created one of his doorways, even I stopped breathing.


The pulsing light was accompanied by a thrumming. Not a noise. The thrumming was something you felt in the pit of your stomach, like a vibration, but not. When he finally dropped his hands, the bruises and swelling rippled for a moment, like heat in the air, and then disappeared.


Chapter 20