The City of Dusk

Five hundred years ago the Sealing split the world into four realms, and magic has trickled between them ever since. Now the hub city of Nexus is short on supplies, the gods have turned their favor away, and every realm is dying. The king has no heir, so the noble houses, each descended from a god, close in on the throne.

Four heirs are forced into an uneasy alliance to hold off a war that could shatter the realms. Taesia of House Lastrider wields shadows, has a name for idleness, and is drawn into a conspiracy. Risha, a necromancer, wants peace and looks after those around her.

Angelica, an elementalist, wants the throne for herself. Nikolas is a soldier who carries grief along with the weight of what his house expects of him. Their alliance is tested by rival schemes. Some plotters are ready to turn to Conjuration, a banned form of magic linked to demon summoning, in order to break the Sealing.

The story moves between several points of view and has a queer ensemble cast. It opens the four-book Dark Gods series and is Tara Sim's first adult fantasy. Readers should know it contains violence and gore, including a brutal scene of cannibalism. The question running through it is whether four rivals can hold together long enough to keep the forbidden magic from winning.