MAGIC RULES. WE SERVE.   In a darkly fantastical debut set in modern-day Britain, magic users control everything: wealth, politics, power—and you. If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them.   This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage . In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit.   Have a quick ten years. . . . Look for all three books in the mesmerizing Dark Gifts trilogy: GILDED CAGE • TARNISHED CITY • BRIGHT RUIN Praise for Gilded Cage “Beautifully characterised and compellingly plotted, Gilded Cage is an impressive debut.” — The Guardian “Exquisitely wicked . . . a lavishly opulent, yet brutally vivid, alternate England which subtly questions modern beliefs . . . If ever there was a speculative fiction book that captured the zeitgeist of an era this is it.” — SFFWorld “An alternate modern-day England where enticing drama and social unrest mix with aristocratic scandal and glamorous magic . . . conjuring up the specters of Les Misérables and Downton Abbey . . . an absorbing first installment that presages an intriguing new fantasy series.” — Kirkus Reviews “ Gilded Cag e is a heart-pounding combination of dark magic, political revolution, and forbidden romance that had me addicted from the first page!” —Danielle L. Jensen, USA Today bestselling author of The Malediction Trilogy “Devious and deliciously dark with lashings of magic, mystery, and mayhem, this juggernaut of a book will keep you hanging on by your fingernails until the very last page.” —Taran Matharu, New York Times bestselling author of the Summoner series “A dark and intriguing vision of an alternate, magic-drenched Britain, Gilded Cage kept me up long into the night.” —Aliette de Bodard, author of The House of Shattered Wings “Beautifully characterised and compellingly plotted, Gilded Cage is an impressive debut.” — The Guardian “Exquisitely wicked . . . a lavishly opulent, yet brutally vivid, alternate England which subtly questions modern beliefs . . . If ever there was a speculative fiction book that captured the zeitgeist of an era this is it.” — SFFWorld “An alternate modern-day England where enticing drama and social unrest mix with aristocratic scandal and glamorous magic . . . conjuring up the specters of Les Misérables and Downton Abbey . . . an absorbing first installment that presages an intriguing new fantasy series.” — Kirkus Reviews “ Gilded Cag e is a heart-pounding combination of dark magic, political revolution, and forbidden romance that had me addicted from the first page!” —Danielle L. Jensen, USA Today bestselling author of The Malediction Trilogy “Devious and deliciously dark with lashings of magic, mystery, and mayhem, this juggernaut of a book will keep you hanging on by your fingernails until the very last page.” —Taran Matharu, New York Times bestselling author of the Summoner series “A dark and intriguing vision of an alternate, magic-drenched Britain, Gilded Cage kept me up long into the night.” —Aliette de Bodard, author of The House of Shattered Wings “Brisk plotting, sympathetic characters, and plenty of intrigue will keep readers on the edges of their seats, eager for the next book in a very promising series.” — Publishers Weekly  (starred review) Vic James  is the author of  Gilded Cage,  which was shortlisted for the Compton Crook award and was a World Book Night 2018 pick, and its sequels  Tarnished City  and  Bright Ruin.  A current-affairs TV director who loves stories in all their forms, she has covered the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Britain’s EU referendum for BBC1 and has twice judged  The Guardian ’s Not the Booker Prize. She has lived in Rome and Tokyo, and currently lives in London. One It was an unusually hot weekend in mid-­June and sweat pooled along Luke Hadley’s spine as he lay on his stomach on a blanket in the front yard. He was staring blankly at a spread of textbooks. The screaming was distracting, and had been going on for a while now. If it had been Abigail trying to revise, Daisy and her pals would never have been allowed to make such a racket. But Mum had inexplicably gone into overdrive for Daisy’s birthday, which had turned into the party of the century. Luke’s little sis and her friends were careering round behind the house shrieking at the tops of their voices, while some unforgivably awful C-­pop boyband blared through the living room window. Luke stuffed his earbuds in as deep as they’d go without rupturing anything, and turned up the volume on his own music. I