The Cradle of Envy

With enough money and power, magic is no longer the only way to alter reality.

In Renaissance Italy, magic is scant. The fae retreated to their forests and hidden places centuries ago and humans—short-lived and spelless—never dared follow. But the funny thing about magic is that it’s not very good at hiding forever. Not when Italy’s elite would pay a fortune for it.

Enter Costa da Vinci, a child cursed with the rare fae talent of invisibility after a gruesome fire that took her home, her parents, and her humanity. Now a young woman, she is a spectacle for her duke—The Fae-Blooded of Milan. However, in spite of her unwitting performances, she otherwise enjoys contented, art-filled days with her adoptive father Leonardo da Vinci, a future-seeing dragon who lives in their cellar, and her best friend—the loud-mouthed, book-loving, certainly-would-never-hold-a-torch-for-her baker, Trevik Rustici.

That is, until a preacher is murdered by a vanishing assassin and all of Milan suspects Costa. She and Tre are forced to flee the city and follow the assassin's trail to Florence in hopes of clearing her name. Along the way, they're joined by two Medici cousins: a snarky, unpredictable soldier and an ambitious young spymaster. Trapped in a spiraling web of fae-corrupted politics, deadly mysteries, and budding romances, Costa and Tre must discover how to dispel the fae threat together. If they fail, they might never come home again.