Veiled

Alex Verus is a diviner in present-day London who can see possible futures. He lives in the city's hidden magical community and has never gotten along with the Council that governs its mages. Now his old master, Richard Drakh, is back in Britain and reaching for power again.

Alex needs allies against him, so he takes a job with the Keepers, the Council's police force. His new partner is the Keeper Caldera, and the pairing is an uneasy one. The work is meant to make him look legitimate in the Council's eyes.

The mission turns lethal instead. Alex comes away holding an item that factions inside and outside the Council would do anything to get. Suspicion follows him through the Council's ranks, and he has to work out who his friends are while enemies wait on every side.

This is the sixth Alex Verus novel, and it follows directly from the events and relationships of the earlier books, so it reads best after Hidden. The pace is fast and tense, with a mystery thread and a good deal of Council politics. Alex also searches for a teacher able to train his apprentice Luna, and that search runs alongside the main plot.