A COVENANT OF CARDS

In a world where the cards’ magic is slowly dying, two futures are written in the stars. Four cards spread across the faded velvet cover of a seer’s workbench tell their tale—The Magician, The High Priestess, The Tower, and The Lovers.

Twelve years ago, Grace Halliday began her small, safe life as a scribe in the cloistered magical Library of Aescea with the impulsive theft of the diary of the High Priestess and three of her Tarot cards-–some of the last remaining artifacts of one of the fabled figures of the Major Arcana. Since then, Grace has tried to ignore the resonance of the book and cards that called to her so strongly and dutifully risen through the scholarly ranks in hopes of becoming the Archivist, safeguarding the history of magic and the legends of the Arcana as if it were her own. 

But when the Library is under siege and other ancient artifacts of the Arcana go missing, Grace is forced to join forces with her childhood rival—former soldier-turned-mercenary-mage, the mysterious Max Drake—before dark forces can wield them to seize control of the source of all magic and enslave Aescea’s mages. In their race to win back the artifacts, Grace and Max must unravel the terrifying secrets within the High Priestess's diary in hopes of finding a ritual to thwart the thieves, uncovering truths that upend their past and threaten to rewrite the history of magic itself. As the ancient figures of the Major Arcana return, Grace and Max must battle not only for all of Aescea and its mages but for a future together as foretold by the cards.