Dagger and the Flame

Seraphine is eighteen when her mother is murdered and the family farmhouse is burned to the ground. She runs to Fantome, a city divided between two feuding guilds, both of which make their money trafficking Shade, a magic-fueled powder that is dangerous to handle and to sell.

The Order of Cloaks takes Sera in. She has one aim: to reach the head of the rival Daggers, whom she blames for her mother's death. Ransom, the charismatic heir to the Daggers, stands between her and that goal, because his task is to track her down.

As monsters begin attacking the city and old family secrets come to the surface, the two are pulled into a game with no fixed sides. Enemy and ally keep trading places, and neither can be sure which one the other is at any given moment.

This is young adult fantasy built around guild warfare and unresolved grief. The pace is fast, the city is a dangerous place to live in, and the romance between Sera and Ransom builds slowly, between two people who are supposed to want each other dead. It opens the City of Fantome series.