Flame & Shadow features Envy Starr, an emotionally stunted halfling with a drinking problem and a bad attitude, destined to die on Midsummer’s Eve. The daughter of a Daemon and a washed-up Vegas showgirl, she’s big on lamenting her fate, in particular the portion that has her dying a virgin during some crappy cult’s live-stream. With a scant month left to live, she escapes, and is thrust into her absentee father’s world of beautifully cultured cruelty.
Hit with a steep learning curve, Envy discovers everyone has an ulterior motive, including the prehistoric Fae that’s been secreted away in her chest as part of an elaborate game. Her only guide is Brennan, the Dae-licious tutor her father, Silas, has hired to make her into a Fae lady, but Brennan’s contract isn’t just with him, and he’d do anything to break it.
When he’s suspected of reneging, Envy is forced to eat some serious crow to save his life, but she’s not particularly wired for self-sacrifice, and there’s no way she’s doing it quietly, Bambi-onesie be damned—
Yeah, that happened. Stupid Fae games…
Whatever. Midsummer’s Eve is rapidly approaching, and that prehistoric pace-maker holds the cards to stopping a plot to screw over normals and Fae alike. She’ll talk, as soon as Envy agrees to let the Fae wear her like a suit.
That’s not happening, but when the moon begins to rise, Envy finds herself a game piece again, and out of options. Pushed to her limit by a squid, schnitzel, and a golden ball, she’s determined to figure out how to win on her terms, no matter how the deck is stacked against her.