Новинки Роба Якобсена

Conman, jailbird, rookie, agent, fugitive…I’ve worn a whole lot of labels over the past year. But the Consilium, AKA the heinous secret league of power-hungry psychos that has been covertly pulling the world’s strings for decades, has slapped a few more on me: abnormality, keystone of evil, and my personal favorite, “annoying pest that keeps escaping our clutches.”

I’ve battled empaths, mages, demons, rogues, and an astonishing quantity of bureaucratic nonsense, but the Consilium is by far the biggest and most dangerous enemy I’ve ever had the pleasure of clashing with. On my own, I won’t be able to stop the nefarious tide of influence and control they’re spreading across the mythic world.

But with the help of Lienna Shen and my other allies, I’m hoping to earn a few new titles from my ultra-ornery foe, starting with “giant pain in their collective ass” and finishing with “nightmare they never should have messed with.”

I just need to make sure I don’t add “unintentional bringer of the apocalypse” to my resume in the process.

The weirdness level of my life has reached an all-time high. Which is saying something, considering I started out as a psychic conman and somehow ended up as a MagiPol agent. And not just any agent. Lately, I’ve been Captain Blythe’s right-hand man and most trusted confidant.

Yeah, I know. Super weird.

It’s also kind of awkward because, unbeknownst to her, I’ve also teamed up with her most loathed nemesis, Darius King, guild master of the Crow and Hammer and the number one guy on the Consilium’s “To Be Eliminated” list.

Oh, and the Consilium? It’s just a secret organization embedded deep in the upper echelons of the MPD that’s using its nefarious influence to take over the world. Or destroy it. We’re still figuring that part out.

“We” being me and Blythe. And me and Darius. But not Blythe and Darius. Like I said, it’s awkward.

Unfortunately, the Consilium knows we’re on to them. Their plans are already in motion, and if we don't find a way to stop them, the mythic world will change for the worse—and there'll be no going back.

What’s a hardworking MagiPol agent need to do to get a little R&R?

Between Agent Söze, the treacherous Internal Affairs tyrant who’s taken over my precinct, and the super illegal sorcery my partner Lienna was hiding in said precinct—which is now missing—my usual routine of busting magical criminals has fallen apart in favor of hectic damage control.

But that went out the window too when a respected Guild Master was found dead. Agent Söze is trying to cover it up, which is all the reason I need to make solving the murder my top priority.

Except now Agent Söze is trying to arrest and/or kill me. Not entirely unexpected, but both dangerous and highly irritating.

With the clock ticking on the next mysterious Guild Master murder, Lienna and I have to find a way to prove Agent Söze is behind it all. We need rock-solid evidence to bring him down, which is kind of tricky when crooked agents, shady allies, and cutthroat assassins keep complicating matters.

And if we don’t get to the bottom of it fast, my next day off will be in the morgue as another corpse to be swept under the corruption rug.

As a conman-turned-MPD-Agent, I'm fairly new to the whole "upholder of justice" thing, but even for me, there are some lines you just don't cross. Agent Söze of the MPD's Internal Affairs department, on other hand, seems determined to slime his way across every ethical line in existence like an over-sized eel on a power trip.

Can you tell I don't like this guy?

While he's dismantling the precinct and hunting down rule-breakers among the staff—a category which my partner and I definitely fall into—a veritable storm of crazy is spreading through the city. Local troublemaking guild, the Crow and Hammer, has been accused of harboring a demon mage, and while I'm not sure what to believe, I've got bigger problems to tackle.

That is, until a certain notorious rogue druid calls me up about that big IOU I accidentally promised him. Now I have no choice but to dive into the chaos—though if I can knock Söze down a peg or two in the process, it'll be worth it.

As a former con-artist, I love a convoluted, mind-bending scheme as much as the next guy. But as a recently promoted MagiPol agent, I love it significantly less than that guy.

Especially when the life of a kidnapped teen hangs in the balance.

Between confusing orders and conflicting evidence, this whole investigation has me and my partner, Lienna, spinning in circles. Why is our boss keeping this case off the books? Why is our top suspect, the most notorious rogue in Vancouver, mired in contradictions? And why am I the only one who cares more about the victim than their own ulterior motives?

Everyone wants me to shut up and follow orders, but that’s not my style. I’ll do whatever it takes to save this kid—even if that means returning to my roguish roots.

Agent Kit Morris. Has a nice ring, doesn't it? It's a big step up from "wanted criminal" or "that weird con-artist guy with weirder psychic powers," both of which recently applied to me. But my promotion to MagiPol agent comes with a few drawbacks.

First, supremely talented and effortlessly gorgeous Agent Lienna Shen won't agree to a dinner date with me. Second, my new assignment has pitted me against a guild with very bad taste in pets. Third, those pets are demons, and those demons want to kill me.

My psychic magic is great for conning people. It doesn't do jack shit against hellish orcs. If I screw this up, my dinner date will be with a demon—and I'll be the dinner. Even better, I kind of suspect this supposedly straightforward assignment is actually the tip of an unholy iceberg of power-hungry malefactors bent on destroying all law and order in the city.

I should probably mention that last part to my boss.

My name is Kit Morris, and welcome to my warped life.

Picture the scene: Me, an average guy with psychic powers—not that my abilities are in any way average—just trying to scrape by in a harsh world. So maybe I've conned a few people, but did I really deserve to be thrown in MPD jail alongside magic-wielding serial killers?

According to Agent Lienna Shen, one-hundred-percent yes.

But her hardass attitude and “Arcana prodigy” status aren’t enough to bring down my former best friend, who slipped through the MPD’s fingers and is days away from unleashing untold horrors upon the city. Or he’s going to steal something. I don’t really know.

Whatever he’s up to, that’s why I’m sitting in an interrogation room with Lienna. And that’s why I just offered myself as her temporary new partner for the purposes of thwarting my ex-accomplice.

And that’s how I’m going to escape. I might even help with the case before I cut and run.