Two months after the horrors of Evershade Manor, Edwin Blackthorn and Julian Thorne are trying to build something like a life together in gaslit London. Edwin has his books, his inherited secrets, and the troubling stirrings of Fae-touched power. Julian has his illegal magic, his underworld contacts, and every reason to distrust the authorities who now need his help.Then Scotland Yard calls them to a morgue.A man has been transformed into solid stone, every detail preserved with impossible precision. The cause is no ordinary curse. It is void-alchemy, a forbidden art that does more than kill. It consumes the soul itself, burning human essence as fuel for transmutation.The first clue points directly to Edwin's family. The next leads to Westgrave Street, the Apothecaries' Guild, and a history of plague-era experiments that were meant to stay buried forever. As more victims appear and London's magical establishment closes ranks, Edwin and Julian must navigate respectable drawing rooms, Whitechapel markets, hidden laboratories, and the poisonous politics of the guilds.But the alchemist behind the crimes is not merely murdering strangers. He is building toward a ritual that could shatter the boundary between life and death, and Edwin's bloodline may be the missing ingredient.To stop him, Edwin and Julian will have to trust each other more completely than ever. Because in a city where grief can become magic and love can become leverage, the dead are not the only ones in danger of being turned to stone.
