A dark, epic fantasy about a girl who must rethink everything
she believes after she is betrayed and hunted by the religion that raised
her—from Megan Bannen, author of The Bird and the Blade. Perfect for fans of The
Winner’s Curse and The Girl of Fire and Thorns.

Gelya is a Vessel, a girl who channels the word
of the One True God through song. Cloistered with the other Vessels of her
faith, she believes—as all Ovinists do—that a saint imprisoned Elath the Great
Demon centuries ago, saving humanity from earthly temptation.

When Gelya stumbles into a deadly cover-up by
the Ovinists’ military, she reluctantly teams up with Tavik, an enemy soldier,
to survive. Tavik believes that Elath is actually a mother goddess who must be
set free, but while he succeeds in opening Her prison, he inadvertently turns
Gelya into Elath’s unwilling human vessel.

Now the church that raised Gelya considers her a
threat. In a race against the clock, she and Tavik must find a way to exorcise
Elath’s presence from her body. But will this release stop the countdown to the
end of the world, or will it be the cause of the earth’s destruction?

And as
Tavik and Gelya grow closer, another question lingers between them: What will
become of Gelya?

“The Bird and the Blade has everything I want in a novel: vivid characters, sumptuous prose, romance, funny dialogue, and a sweeping storyline in an intricately researched world. This story will break your heart—but it will remake it, too.”