IT"S A THIN LINE BETWEEN ALIVE AND UNDEAD.

Chess Putnam has a lot on her plate. Mangled human corpses have started to show up on the streets of Downside, and Chessrs"s bosses at the Church of Real Truth have ordered her to team up with the ultra-powerful Black Squad agency to crack the grisly case.

Chess is under a binding spell that threatens death if she talks about the investigation, but the cityrs"s most notorious crime boss-and Chessrs"s drug dealer-gets wind of her new assignment and insists on being kept informed. If that isnrs"t bad enough, a sinister street vendor appears to have information Chess needs. Only hers"s not telling what he knows, or what it all has to do with the vast underground City of Eternity.

Now Chess will have to navigate killer wraiths, First Elders, and a lot of seriously nasty magic-all while coping with some not-so-small issues of her own. And the only man Chess can trust to help her through it all has every reason to want her dead.