“A remarkable writer.” —Neil Gaiman, bestselling author of American Gods An Alex Award Winner There is a dark secret that is hiding at the heart of New York City and diminishing the city’s magicians’ power in this fantasy thriller by acclaimed author Kat Howard. In New York City, magic controls everything. But the power of magic is fading. No one knows what is happening, except for Sydney—a new, rare magician with incredible power that has been unmatched in decades, and she may be the only person who is able to stop the darkness that is weakening the magic. But Sydney doesn’t want to help the system, she wants to destroy it. Sydney comes from the House of Shadows, which controls the magic with the help of sacrifices from magicians. NPR Best Book of 2017 An Alex Award Winner "This is an amazing book filled with magic, consequences, and what happens when you fight rather than turning away. This is Omelas, for magic. This is the price that must be paid. This is the story the others forgot to tell.”—Fran Wilde, award-winning author of Updraft and Horizon . "Strong characters and a captivating revenge plot make this a fun, absorbing read for those who like their magic, and their magicians, dark and twisty."— Kirkus "The characters and the Unseen World flourish in her gorgeous prose."— Publishers Weekly "Howard’s vengeance-fueled urban fantasy is stylish, macabre, and spellbinding."— Booklist “Imagine the dueling club in Harry Potter all grown up and out for blood.”— Shelf Awareness “Howard’s magical world is wonderfully vivid; the magic itself engages all the senses, making each spell feel tangible. The disturbing, thrilling, and lovely moments pulse with striking language, and the fast-paced story is polished with a bit of humor that helps keep the novel light and fun. This riveting book is perfect for readers who want to escape."— San Francisco Book Review “A really good book. Its characters come vividly alive, its prose is precisely observed, and it’s both tense and incredibly compelling.”— Locus Magazine “Fun and fast-paced read, and is impossible to look away from.”— Tor.com Kat Howard’s short fiction has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, anthologized in best of and annual best of collections, and performed on NPR. You can find it in her collection, A Cathedral of Myth and Bone. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Roses and Rot and the Alex Award–winning An Unkindness of Magicians . She is also one of the writers of the Books of Magic series, set in the Sandman Universe. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and you can find her on twitter at @KatWithSword. An Unkindness of Magicians CHAPTER ONE The young woman cut through the crowded New York sidewalk like a knife. Tall in her red-soled stilettos, black clothing that clung to her like smoke, red-tipped black hair sharp and angular around her face. She looked like the kind of woman people would stop for, stare at, notice. None of them did. Stalking down Wall Street, the spire of Trinity Church rising before her, she slid among the suits and tourists like a secret, drawing no eyes, no shouted “hey, babys,” not even the casual jar of a shoulder bumped in a crowd. She could have been a ghost. A shadow. The sun stark, the sky a harsh blue, cloudless and broken only by the glare of reflections. Late-summer heat stewed salt-sweat and heavy cologne together, mingling them with the sizzle rising from sidewalk food carts. The day bright, almost ordinary. The woman paused at a corner. Her slate-grey eyes flicked up toward some unmarked window in one of the buildings scraping the sky, as if to be sure someone was watching. Her lips, red as blood, quirked up at the corners, and Sydney stepped off the curb and into traffic. Neither the cars nor their drivers seemed aware of her presence. Sydney walked to the center of the intersection and raised her arms like a conductor about to begin a symphony. She stood, unmoving, for one breath. Two. Three. If there had been eyes somewhere above that rushing city that were able to watch, they would have seen her lips moving. And then. The cars around her, as one, lifted gracefully into the air. Sydney held them there, rust-stained taxis and sleek black sedans with tinted windows, courier vans and a tour bus blaring the opening number of the latest Broadway hit. Ten feet above the ground, floating through the intersection like some bizarre migration of birds. A smile stretched, bright and wild, across her face. If the people in the cars could have seen it, they might have called it exhilaration. They might have called it joy. The people in the cars didn’t see her. No blaring horns, no cursing drivers. No awe—no reaction—from either the people in the now-flying vehicles, or from any of the passersby. Simply flight, where that shouldn’t have been an option. Sydney directed the cars through the intersection—through the air—with words, with sm