Nico’s grin broadened. “Well, excellent,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to expand linguistically. I think too much in English now, I need something else. Never trust a dichotomy, I always say. Though on a relevant note, do you want top or bottom?” he asked, and Gideon blinked.

This chilling story of ambition and magic will make you question your own morals as you grow to love (and hate) its fascinating, ruthless cast of characters. I utterly devoured this book." —Amanda Foody, New York Times bestselling co-author of All of Us VillainsLibby and Nico are physicists who can control matter. Reina is a naturalist who is offered fruit from the Earth. Callum can manipulate people’s emotions. Tristan can see through illusions, and Parisa is a telepath. Gideon knelt on the beach with a roll of his eyes and submerged his hand again, this time leaning into the sand until it overtook his body and he slid fully into the other side. Instantly there was a shift in pressure, high to low, and Gideon found himself tumbling headlong into more sand, dropping from the sky onto the rolling hills of an arid desert.

Gideon had stared at him and thought, I can’t tell you. Not that he thought Nico was going to turn out to be some sort of creature hunter or someone planted in his room by his mother (although both were a distinct possibility), but there was always a moment when people started to look at him differently. Gideon hated that moment. The moment when others started to find something—many somethings—to reinforce their suspicions that Gideon was repulsive in some way. Instinctual knowledge; prey responding to a threat. Fight or flight.Blake brilliantly uses fantasy trappings, and plenty of cliff hangers and twists, to tell a story that leaves readers questioning everything they believe to be true in the world she has created Gideon allowed himself to feel the things he tried (under other circumstances) not to, and like a sigh of relief, he felt the realms shift courteously beneath his feet. The nightmare gradually subsided, giving way to the atmosphere of Gideon’s own dreams, and so Gideon followed the path that came to him most easily: his own. In the end, the pitfall and the providence of knowing Nico de Varona was that he could not be readily forgotten, nor easily parted from. Missing him was like missing a severed limb. Never quite complete and never whole, though on occasion the vestigial aches proved helpfully informative. Alliances will be tested, hearts will be broken, and The Society of Alexandrians will be revealed for what it a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way.