Night Shift
Hunter’s Prayer
Redemption Alley
Flesh Circus
Heaven’s Spite
Angel Town
Jill Kismet (omnibus)
A ROMANCE OF ARQUITAINE NOVELS
The Hedgewitch Queen
The Bandit King
AS LILI ST. CROW
THE STRANGE ANGELS SERIES
Strange Angels
Betrayals
Jealousy
Defiance
Reckoning
PRAISE FOR THE WORKS OF LILITH SAINTCROW:
Dante Valentine
“She’s a brave, charismatic protagonist with a smart mouth and a suicidal streak. What’s not to love? Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton should warm to Saintcrow’s dark evocative debut.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Saintcrow’s amazing protagonist is gutsy, stubborn to a fault and vaguely suicidal, meaning there’s never a dull moment… This is the ultimate in urban fantasy!”
—RT Book Reviews (Top Pick!)
“Dark, gritty urban fantasy at its best.”
—blogcritics.org
Jill Kismet
“Nonstop rough-and-tumble action combined with compelling characterization and a plot that twists and turns all over the place. Saintcrow . . . never fails to deliver excitement.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Loaded with action and starring a kick-butt heroine who from the opening scene until the final climax is donkey-kicking seemingly every character in sight.”
—Harriet Klausner
“Lilith has again created a vibrant, strong female heroine who keeps you running behind her in a breathless charge against forces you just know you would never be able to walk away from completely unscathed.”
—myfavouritebooks.blogspot.com
“This mind-blowing series remains a must-read for all urban fantasy lovers.”
—Bitten by Books
Bannon & Clare
“Saintcrow scores a hit with this terrific steampunk series that rockets through a Britain-that-wasn’t with magic and industrial mayhem with a firm nod to Holmes. Genius and a rocking good time.”
—Patricia Briggs
“Saintcrow melds a complex magic system with a subtle but effective steampunk society, adds fully fleshed and complicated characters, and delivers a clever and highly engaging mystery that kept me turning pages, fascinated to the very end.”
—Laura Anne Gilman
“Innovative world-building, powerful steampunk, master storyteller at her best. Don’t miss this one… She’s fabulous.”
—Christine Feehan
“Lilith Saintcrow spins a world of deadly magic, grand adventure, and fast-paced intrigue through the clattering streets of a maze-like mechanized Londonium. The Iron Wyrm Affair is a fantastic mix of action, steam, and mystery dredged in dark magic with a hint of romance. Loved it! Do not miss this wonderful addition to the steampunk genre.”
—Devon Monk
—Jacqueline Carey
GLOSSARY
Barrow-wight: Fullblood Unseelie wights whose homes are long “barrows.” Gold loses its luster in their presence.
Brughnies: House-sidhe; they delight in cooking and cleaning. A well-ordered kitchen is their joy.
The Fatherless: Robin Goodfellow, also called Puck, the nominal leader of the free sidhe.
Folk: Sidhe, or clan within the sidhe, or generally a group, race, or species.
Ghilliedhu: “Birch-girl”; dryads of the birch clan, held to be great beauties.
Grentooth: A jack-wight, often amphibious, with mossy teeth and a septic bite.
Kelpie: A river sidhe, capable of appearing as a black horse and luring its victims to drowning.
Kobolding: A crafty race of sidhe, often amassing great wealth, living underground. Related to goblins, distantly related to the dwarven clans.
Quirpiece: A silver coin, used to hold a particular chantment.
Realmaker: A sidhe whose chantments do not fade at dawn. Very rare.
Seelie: Sidhe of Summer’s Court, or holding fealty to Summer.
Selkie: A sealskin sidhe.
Sidhe: The Fair Folk, the Little People, the Children of Danu.
Sluagh: The ravening horde of the unforgiven dead.
Tainted: Possessing mortal blood.
Twisted: A sidhe altered and mutated, often by proximity to cold iron, unable to use sidhe chantments or glamour.
Unseelie: Sidhe of Unwinter’s Court, or holding fealty to Unwinter.
Wight: “Being,” or “creature”; used to refer to certain classes of sidhe.
Woodwight: A wight whose home or form is a tree, whose blood is resinous.
We hope you enjoyed this book.
Wondering what to read next?
Discover other books you might enjoy by signing up for Orbit’s newsletter.
You’ll get the scoop on the latest releases, deals, excerpts, and breaking news delivered straight to your inbox each month.
Sign Up
Or visit us at www.orbitbooks.net/booklink
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter 1: Vengeance
Chapter 2: The Savoigh Limited
Chapter 3: A Stranger’s Bed
Chapter 4: Birth
Chapter 5: A Very Thin Shield
Chapter 6: A Goddamn Good Bit Of Luck
Chapter 7: Bravado
Chapter 8: Din R
Chapter 9: Summerhome
Chapter 11: Silent Luck
Chapter 12: His Fill
Chapter 13: A Lover’s Knot
Chapter 14: Fair Robin
Chapter 15: Changeling No More
Chapter 16: Dirty Work
Chapter 17: Plague
Chapter 18: A New Animal
Chapter 19: Well Dead Before
Chapter 20: Carnivale
Chapter 21: Bright Nail
Chapter 22: How Craven
Chapter 23: Healed, Not Forgotten
Chapter 24: Dozy Intuition
Chapter 25: A-Horse And A-Hound
Chapter 26: A Memory Attached
Chapter 27: The Gobelin
Chapter 28: A Face To Match
Chapter 29: Freely Given
Chapter 30: Seek Any Cure
Chapter 31: Bad Juju
Chapter 32: Ask And Begone
Chapter 33: Invited Guests
Chapter 34: Believe No Man
Chapter 35: Some Way Through
Chapter 36: Be Welcome Here
Chapter 37: God’s House
Chapter 38: Little Dove
Chapter 39: Findergast’s Mercy
Chapter 40: Wondrous Turn
Chapter 41: A Little Bird To Rescue
Chapter 42: When You Are Mad
Chapter 43: What I Have Wrought
Chapter 44: Home To Visit
Chapter 45: Hunger Forgotten
Chapter 46: Scorn
Chapter 47: How I Die
Chapter 48: Nightmarish Goodwill
Chapter 49: The Gallow Who Did It
Chapter 50: Another Castaway
Chapter 51: A Poked Anthill
Chapter 52: Did Your Part
Chapter 54: Then Leave
Chapter 55: A Fair Price
Chapter 56: The Same At Night
Chapter 57: Any More Than I Hate Myself
Chapter 58: A Body To Explain
Chapter 59: A Service To Perform
Acknowledgments
Extras Meet the Author
A Preview of Wasteland King
A Preview of Blood Call
By Lilith Saintcrow
Praise for the works of Lilith Saintcrow
Glossary
Orbit Newsletter
Copyright
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2016 by Lilith Saintcrow
Excerpt from Wasteland King copyright © 2016 by Lilith Saintcrow
Excerpt from Blood Call copyright © 2015 by Lilith Saintcrow
Cover design by Lauren Panepinto
Cover illustration by Dan Dos Santos
Cover © 2016 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Orbit
Hachette Book Group
1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104
orbitbooks.net
orbitshortfiction.com
First ebook edition: January 2016
Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group.
The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Limited.
The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
ISBN 978-0-316-27786-0
E3