Being a private investigator wasn’t supposed to be complicated. I expected cheating spouses and missing pets like BonBon, a kidnapped ‘pure-bred Schnoodle’ with a ruby-studded collar. What I didn’t expect was a desperate elf on my doorstep, begging for help to find her missing parents. Nor did I think that my search would drag me back into the magical world I’d tried so hard to leave behind.

Wren Xavier prizes loyalty above all else. So when someone murders her only friend in the world, the magical superspy swears she’ll bring the killer to justice. But her only lead is the megalomaniacal ambassador from the enchanted land of elves – who couldn’t possibly have committed the crime. Pursuing her quarry to his home country, the thirty-nine-year-old covert operative finds herself in over her head in a culture she doesn’t understand.

Eliza Scaggs (not Scraggsies, thank you very much) is tired of all the rumors about her. Sure, she’s looking a bit haggard as of late, but she’s been working herself to the bone on a secret government project to prove that she, the only woman in the wizard’s guild, belongs there. So, maybe she’s got some gray in her hair, but she’s not old, not old-old— and the only thing she’s made a pact with is her purveyor of rot brew tea. Okay, the pet monster thing is true, but Throat Ripper hasn’t caught anyone, not yet.

Yael Clauneck is more interested in drinking and flirting than joining their powerful family’s business. They’re on the precipice of a predetermined life when they flee their own graduation party, galloping away in search of . . . well, they’re not sure, but maybe the chance to feel like life can still be a grand adventure. Margot Greenwillow—talented plant witch, tea lover, and greenhouse owner—has never felt further from adventure in her life. She’s been desperately trying to keep what remains of her family’s magic remedies business afloat.

The Oracle foretold that Princess Valda Aither of the Sky Kingdom would discover her mate on her twenty-fifth birthday. They would lock eyes and find each other, as has happened since the dawn of time. Valda desperately wanted to believe the Oracle, but her hopes of finding her soulmate were shattered when she inexplicably lost her vision during her birthday celebration. Needing time to heal and adapt to her new reality, she was assigned an assistant, a young woman named Maris Era, who set her body and mind ablaze.