The Dead House

The dead do not rest in Veyrholm.

After surviving the deadly politics of House Vale, Nico Vale has become the city's most unlikely power: a bastard heir chosen by a magical mask he refuses to trust. But his victory has left him with a darker question. One of Veyrholm's seven ruling houses, House Merrow, has supposedly been extinct for centuries.

So why are its seals still signing orders?

Why are its accounts still moving money?

And why are its messengers arriving without a pulse?

When Nico discovers that the dead house may still be operating from the drowned districts beneath the city, he is pulled into a new investigation filled with corpse couriers, black-tide canals, hidden ledgers, forgotten children, and debts that refuse to die. At his side are Dante, the brother who once hated him; Serena Morcant, the assassin daughter whose loyalty is never simple; Mara Quill, the clerk brave enough to read what powerful people bury; and Ari Vale, a sharp-tongued hidden sister who may be another key to the masks' ancient design.

But House Merrow is not merely a mystery. It is a warning.

In Veyrholm, bloodlines rule, masks remember, and the dead may be better at keeping power than the living. As Nico follows the trail into flooded archives and buried records, he must decide how much truth a city can survive before its rulers reach for knives.

The Dead House is the second book in The House of Seven Masks, a dark fantasy royal crime saga filled with gothic atmosphere, dangerous families, supernatural conspiracy, political betrayal, and ancient magic.