ILONA ANDREWS

Happy Friday!

The Random Number Generator performed its duty and gave us the winner of the vellum overlay set for This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me:

Congratulations, Erin Phillippi!

I will contact Erin from the modr@ilona-andrews.com email address. If we don’t hear back by Thursday, May 14, a new winner will be drawn next Friday.

What are these?

For anyone who missed it, Ilona made a video explaining and demonstrating the vellum inserts, which you can find here.

Briefly: vellum overlays are not art prints. They are semi-transparent character portraits printed on softly textured vellum, which is a frosted, slightly cloudy specialty paper that lets the art show through while giving it a muted, layered effect. They are designed to be tucked into the hardcover book or placed over a page, not framed as standalone wall art.

The vellum overlays will be available as a set of six in the Ilona Andrews merch store when it reopens. I don’t have an official date for the opening yet, and House Andrews are still working out whether international availability is possible. The best way to make sure you don’t miss the announcement is to subscribe to the Ilona Andrews newsletter.

At the moment, the set will include only the six character portraits by Helena Elias: Clover, Solentine Dagarra, Ramond vi Everard, the Sun Margrave, Doran Arvel and the Man from the Garden.

If you are looking for This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me art prints, reminder that many of the commissioned artists have prints available directly through their own stores, which is covered and linked in this post. Buying from them is a wonderful way to support the artists and their original, human-made work, taking a stand against AI content.

Speaking of AI and spam, a quick online safety reminder: please stay vigilant for scammers. House Andrews will never ask you to cover postage costs, pay fees, or make any kind of money transfer connected to these giveaways. Winners are announced here on the blog, and we will only contact you from an official Ilona Andrews account or email address, with the link to the public blog post as proof that you are indeed the winner.

May your weekend bring good times, good tidings, and yummy snacks!

Note from Ilona – we should have the first batch of vellum next week. We will be doing a trial run of 120 sheets, with 20 sets of 6. We have never acted as a fulfillment center before, so we want to make sure that we iron out any kinks before fully unleashing the Horde. If you miss the opportunity to order, don’t panic. We will be doing a larger print run, and this vellum is printed locally by a small business, so it’s not shipping in from overseas and it will be available much faster.

The post This Kingdom Vellum Overlay Giveaway Winner first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

I overslept, and my day started with an outraged cat.

Over the past few days, a road crew has been working on the street next to our house. They are repaving it. The road is closed, and Gordon observed the workers having heated words with a driver of a delivery truck this morning. We might be trapped today.

Because of the road crew, we are keeping Tuna inside. Tuna started life as a stray who wandered randomly around an apartment complex, and breaking him of wanting to go outside is impossible. He has two acres here, and he is very much the lord of his domain. Today His Majesty was refused access to the outside. The inability to inspect his lands didn’t sit well, so he made himself into a nuisance.

Tuna: Pet me! Pet me! Pet me! Look, I meow by the door. Open door. OPEN DOOR.

Me, trying to clean up: No.

The allergies have been terrible, and neither of us is sleeping that well. I was shopping for some Halls cough drops and saw that instead of puny bags, they now come in full scale large jars. Of course, I bought a jar. It was delivered yesterday with saline spray and Flonase, and being too tired, I plopped all of that on my writing tray in the office. I need the tray to write.

Me, gathering items to take to the medicine cabinet.

Tuna: TREATS.

Me: No, you fool. These are not Temptation treats.

Tuna: TREATS.

Me: It’s cough drops!

Tuna: If not treats, why treat shaped? TREATS.

Tuna Vision

I gave him treats. The vet will fuss at me again over his weight, but there are limits to human patience.

I come to you with a mission this morning. The book is now 185K. It is very clear that there is no room left for anything else in our lives. I still have not unpacked. Or sent things out. Mod R will have strong words with me here soon if I keep failing.

We need assistance, or we will never get the shop back off the ground, and our time is better spent writing. To that end, we hired a designer to help us turn the treasure trove of art into merch. Here is some of her work.

These bookmarks will be included in the media package. We have secured a printer for the vellum, so we will be bringing to you a media pack with vellum, stickers, and bookmarks.

Do you have any favorite quotes or moments you want reflected in This Kingdom merch? Please leave us a comment below. If you are dying for something from the other series, you can throw it in there too, but we are focusing on This Kingdom as it is the latest release.

The comment section to this post contains SPOILERS. Read at your own risk.

The post Cats and Bookmarks first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

I did not get much sleep last night. I am relying on tea and sheer will, so let’s hope I make sense. We have an art print roundup for you this morning, with several options from the artists who worked on This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me.

A note about shipping: a lot of the artists we work with are outside the US. The shipping costs have risen sharply, in large part due to the tariffs. If you want a signed print and you are in the US, you might have to pay more.

Because of this, all of the artists on this list offer INPRNT art. These prints are not signed museum quality but are still beautiful. They are more reasonably priced and have US domestic shipping rates.

So: INPRNT = unsigned print, local shipping for US.

Luisa Preissler

Fine art prints and collectible character cards featuring illustrations by Luisa Preissler, created for the world of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews.

The prints are museum-quality giclée prints. Each one is hand-signed by the artist and available exclusively during a limited pre-order window.

Also available is a set of collectible character cards featuring Maggie & Everard, finished with gold details. The cards include foil stamping on both sides and rounded corners — designed to be displayed rather than stored away.

Pre-order period: May 1st – May 15th, 2026 (closes 8 PM CEST / Berlin time). All items are produced after the pre-order closes and are expected to begin shipping May 29th.

You can shop the signed fine art prints and character cards here:
https://luisapreissler.de/collections/all

Please note for US customers: due to current customs regulations, shipping is only available via DHL Express, which is significantly more expensive, and import duties may apply on arrival.

For a more budget-friendly option, the unsigned prints are available via INPRNT:
https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/luisapreissler/. This option does not include the custom character cards, however.

Helena Elias

Helena’s shop offers high quality collector prints in two sizes. They are giclée printing quality on matte museum paper.

She is located in Australia, so all prices are in Australian dollars (AUD); however, the prints are fulfilled through an international distributor. So while you are paying in AUD, your shipping will be domestic if you are in US and you won’t have to wait for your prints to clear customs.

Candice Slater

Candice Slater offers the landmarks of Kair Toren and Inheritance art through INPRNT.

The prints are unsigned, with domestic US shipping, and some are also available as posters, minis, framed prints, and stickers.

Leesha Hannigan

Leesha also offers art prints through INPRNT. While I do not see Sushi there right now, I am pretty sure she was going to add her. However, you can shop all of the other amazing art she has. The doggie. Look at the doggie!

Don’t forget to enter the vellum giveaway by signing up for our newsletter.

A reminder that our Merch Store will not offer art prints. We are doing vellum hardback inserts and the usual merch items like T-shirts, cups etc. If you want art prints, please order directly from the artists.

PS Mod R:

Ilona wrote this blog post for us, but she has a lot on her plate, so I’ve set myself as the author to ensure the comments come only to me and don’t flood her inbox. There is no deep conspiracy here, I’m certain we would all prefer House Andrews to focus on what they do best!

The post Art Print Roundup first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Attention, Dallas-area Horde, I have a special announcement.

On Friday, May 15th, at 6:30 pm, Ilona and Gordon are emerging from the writing cave (trademark pending) and heading to Half Price Books in Dallas to moderate one of Veronica Roth’s signing tour appearances for her new book, Seek the Traitor’s Son.

And what a book to talk about!

Seek The Traitor’s Son

An epic, romantic dystopian fantasy begins in Seek the Traitor’s Son, from #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent series, Veronica Roth. Available on May 12th from Tor Books, in deluxe hardcover edition with sprayed edges.

Elegy Ahn did not ask for destiny to find her.

She is happy with her life as a soldier, defending her small country from the Talusar, a powerful nation who worships a deadly Fever. A fever that blesses half of its victims with mysterious gifts.

But then she’s summoned to hear a prophecy–her, and the most ruthless of Talusar generals, Rava Vidar. Brought face to face, they learn that one of them will lead their people to victory over the other…but they don’t know which. And at the center of both of their fates: a man. A man that, Elegy is told, she will fall in love with. In just one day, Elegy’s old life–her job, her purpose, and her future–is over.

She and Rava are destined to collide, with the fate of their nations hanging in the balance. And when they do, only one will be left standing.

Elegy intends to make sure it’s her.

Destiny, prophecies, enemy generals, romance, warfare, mysterious gifts, and the fate of nations hanging in the balance? Yes, please! I know Ilona and Gordon are extremely excited to see Veronica and hear all about it.

House Andrews will be there in a supporting role as moderators, making sure the evening is a true celebration of Veronica and her incredible new book. Think of this as a “chatting shop” night, a chance to see them in conversation with another fantastic writer!

If you are in the Dallas area and would like to attend, tickets for the event are available for purchase here.

If you would like to attend a signing and you can’t make it to Dallas, Veronica’s tour will have multiple stops in both the US and the UK – for full details of all appearances, moderating authors and dates, check out her website here.

Happy preordering and May the 4th be with you!

The post Veronica Roth with House Andrews in Dallas! first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

We have beautiful overlays from Helena Elias, and today is you chance to win a set. We made you this video explaining what the overlays are, so you have a chance to listen to me in my Sell Products Online era.

If you are reading this in your inbox and can’t see the video, here is a direct link to the post.

If you are already a newsletter subscriber, no need to do anything. Your email address is already entered.

If you haven’t subscribed, you have two options: Publishing News, which comes out only a few times a year with important news like new releases and giveaways, and Blog Updates, which delivers all of our blog posts to your inbox. We will not sell or share your information; your email address stays with us and is used only for our newsletters.

As stated, these are prototypes, and the portraits of Sol and Ramond turned out to be a little too dark when printed, so they will be lightened for the final printing. Please note that I said 3 times in the video that these are semi-transparent. That’s because experience tells me that someone will order these and be terribly upset because they are not art prints.

If you would prefer to order Helena’s prints, they are available at her store.

Winner will be chosen next Friday, May 08, 2026. We will ship internationally; however, there is no guarantee that the prints will arrive to you. In the event the prints are lost in transit, we will not replace them and will bear no responsibility for compensating you.

The post This Kingdom Gives Away Vellum Overlays first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Mod R is out today, so you are in my semi-capable hands. This is a slice of life post.

When I was a child, time seemed to move in a straight forward way, like floating down the stream of a slow, gentle river in a little boat. Then I became an adult, and the passage of time stopped being a steady ride. Sometimes it’s a rapid current, and I don’t know what’s going on, and the boat is falling apart. Sometimes the river turns into a swamp, and I’m going in circles, rowing as fast as I can and getting nowhere. Sometimes I just give up and drift. But then there are times when I open my eyes and notice that the sky is a beautiful blue, the water is clear, and the weeping willows are bending gracefully over the banks.

April had managed to pack all of those moments into 4 weeks. It’s always a very busy month for us. Gordon and both of our daughters were all born in April. This year, there was a book tour on top of it, followed by Gordon getting sick, and then a storm that ripped the decorative shutters off our house and damaged the stucco. Through all of it, we have been working on the book, which is a mammoth at 173,000 words and still isn’t done.

The river has been clogged with debris of Not Done for a while. Boxes of books haven’t been mailed, admin tasks haven’t been attended to, phone calls haven’t been returned, and important errands haven’t been run. I haven’t unpacked. I normally unpack within 24 hours of coming home.

::stares at the suitcases::

I swear I will unpack today.

We did accomplish some things. I have gone to my medical appointments. They had given me a heart monitor out of abundance of caution, and I am delighted to report that I am allergic to whatever kind of glue is on it. I broke out in hives, and the itching was ridiculous. The monitor fell off after 5 days and I actually did a little dance of happiness. I also dragged Gordon to have an eye exam, and his new glasses have arrived. I need to drag him out again to pick them up.

We went out for a dinner with friends and then again to celebrate the birthdays. We have left the house so many times in April, it has to be a record of some kind.

We signed and mailed off 2,600 bookplates for a special book box.

We heroically cut the grass in the backyard, because we finally got rain and in the true Texas fashion, the weeds had gotten thigh-high in a space of a week. Gordon ordered a dumpster for a spring cleaning, and I am ridiculously excited, because I can clean out the back yard. It accumulates old planters, random items like rusted thingie that was used at some point to turn the shutters, and other weird stuff, and I swear that refuse keeps reproducing somehow.

Someone emailed about the mammoth I made during the Q&A. Here she is.

I made her with Premier Parfait Plush for Kid 2. The pattern is available on Etsy from KnotsandSnuggles. Their mammoth has a wider head and less curly hair, but I really liked the curls. There is no trick – they happen naturally if you pull up a longer yarn loop.

I haven’t finished the Book Tour Shawl. I am saving it for the summer trip to Columbus Book Fair.

The next project is this shawl, Frühlingserwachen. I’d love to know what that translates to.

Pattern and Image by FraeuleinGerdaEU

This is a very interesting pattern that looks deceptively complex, but is actually pretty straight forward. My issue right now is that I don’t quite have the right yarn for it.

I can hear you laughing, but hear me out.

This shawl takes at least 1,200 yards. I wanted to do one of Wendy Wonders gradients with it, but realized that what I have tops out at 800 and matching to it will be difficult. I’m trying to figure out how to approach this. Should I do each section in a different color? Do I want cotton or something like Blue Heroin with lurex for this or do I want wool? Fingering or DK? Should I stick to the gradient but do the narrow cross sections in a different color or would that look ugly?

I am conflicted.

Well, I need to be at work in 8 minutes, so I have to end this lovely picnic and climb back into my metaphorical boat.

This is my reminder to myself and to anyone who needs it today: the book will get finished, the chores will get finished, the planet will keep spinning. In a rush to get everything done and to catch up, let’s not forget to enjoy the river.

The post Slice of Life Monday first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Great audio news to usher us into the weekend:

Graphic Audio’s dramatized full-cast adaptation of Sapphire Flames is now available for preorder, with release scheduled for August 12. Arabella’s POV short story A Misunderstanding will also be included.

This is the first novel in Catalina’s Hidden Legacy trilogy, picking up three years after Diamond Fire. Catalina has been very busy learning what it means to be a Prime, Alessandro is about to do a great deal of Italian exclaiming, and fan-favourite Runa returns in the middle of family tragedy.

Speaking of Diamond Fire, reminder that the dramatized adaptation came out on April 6, so if you are following the Hidden Legacy audio releases in order, you have time to enjoy Nevada’s wedding novella before Catalina fully takes the wheel in August.

And that’s not all that GA has in store for us!

Nora Achrati is back in the Kate Daniels world, and has started directing and recording for the Wilmington Years series – with Magic Tides to be expected in late July.

The script is wonderful, the covers are being designed as we speak, and Nora, of course, brings all of her experience from the main series with her. I’ve also told her everything about the Horde’s reactions to Wilmington, so she knows about the Consort (ever merciful), the magic clams, the Keelan love and just how much we were missing Kate and didn’t want to give her peace in her HEA hehe.

After the Wilmington Years, Nora will move on to Blood Heir. That one is further down the line, and I do not have an official date for you yet.

A lot of you have also asked about a dramatized adaptation of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me. Thank you for all the casting and directorial suggestions, soundtrack concepts, and the enthusiasm, but a gentle reminder: House Andrews is not hiring or commissioning Graphic Audio to produce these adaptations, nor controlling their business and creative decisions.

GA are an entirely independent business, who approaches authors for adaptation rights of the works they are interested in, and entirely designs and produces the full-cast “movies in your mind”. As soon as we have official news on the Maggie the Undying dramatized front, we will announce it.

Until then: preorders are open, recordings have started, and our summer is looking very good indeed.

The post Audio news: Consorts and Primes first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Another occasion to see House Andrews live!

Ilona and Gordon will appear as Featured Authors at the 2026 Columbus Book Festival on July 11 and 12, 2026.

Hosted by the Columbus Metropolitan Library Foundation, the festival events will be held at Main Library, 96 S. Grant Ave, and in the adjacent Topiary Park at the corner of Town and Washington Streets.

If you would like to see House Andrews in person, here is where to find them:

• Saturday, July 11 at 1:00 PM Spirits, Spells & Swoons: Romantasy | Stage 2

House Andrews will be talking romantasy, magic, danger, and all the delicious complications that come with throwing feelings into a fantasy kingdom that’s trying to kill you. Joining them on the panel are BFF Jeaniene Frost (A Curse of Beasts and Magic) and Shalini Abeysekara (This Blade of Ours).

• Sunday, July 12 at 10:30 AM Speed Matching | Room 2A

In Speed Matching, readers meet authors in small groups for quick five-minute rounds, getting a personal introduction to each book before the authors rotate to the next table.

• Sunday, July 12 at 3:00 PM God Complex: World-Building | Stage 2

Later that afternoon, Ilona Andrews will return to Stage 2 for a conversation about world-building alongside John Chu (The Subtle Art of Folding Space) and K.X. Song (The Dragon Wakes with Thunder). If your favorite part of fantasy is seeing how an author builds a world that feels layered, lived-in, and slightly alarming to inhabit, this is likely your panel.

Tickets?

All of these sessions are free and open to the public, with no tickets required. Seating for panel discussions is first come, first served however, so if there is a session you particularly want to attend, arriving early is your friend.

Signed books?

Yes! After each scheduled appearance (so both panels as well as the Speed Matching), Ilona and Gordon will head to their assigned table in the 2nd Floor Reading Room for a one-hour signing session, where readers will be able to meet them and have books signed.

The festival bookstore will also be set up there, with new releases as well as back-titles from all the featured festival authors available for purchase. By buying books at the Official Festival Bookstore you are supporting your local independent book stores! It is a partnership between Cover to Cover, The Book Loft, Gramercy Books, and Prologue Bookshop.

The festival organizers will also be announcing the full author lineup, exhibitors, and updated festival information through the official festival website which is here.

Book Clubs

One more quick note while I have your attention.

If you previously sent a request for a personalised book club letter from House Andrews and did not receive a response, please resend it with the subject line: Book Club Letter Request.

Both Ilona and myself have been truly buried under a truly ridiculous amount of fake “book club” spam lately, the ChatGPT-written kind that promises followers, Hollywood connections, immortal Texan ferrets in space, the works.

Some of the legitimate requests may have been accidentally sacrificed during the cleanup. Using that exact subject line will help real requests stand out from the nonsense.

Happy BDHing!

The post House Andrews at the 2026 Columbus Book Festival first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Pressida grimaced and unhooked a small barrel secured to her saddle. Her Andican mare gave the barrel a derisive snort. Pressida had tied her on the other side of the log, well out of Keraengle’s kicking range.

“That is what I love about knighthood.” Pressida pulled a knife out, pried the lid off the barrel, and dumped two gallons of ripe fish entrails onto the beach. “The sheer glamor of the job.”

The post Snippet Wednesday: the Glamor first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Happy Monday, BDH!

A couple of quick updates to start the week.

First, for everyone asking about purchasing the commissioned This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me artwork:

If you are looking for prints of the character art, Helena Elias’ store is open and she has a special Ilona Andrews page.

Luisa Preissler announced that her store will soon be carrying character art cards, and she showed the proofs on Instagram yesterday.

If you’d like to know when they go on sale, please sign up for Luisa’s newsletter here.

Candice Slater is also currently working through options for the Kair Toren art, which you can admire here.

If you want prints and cards and probably calendars, please buy them from the artists directly. The Ilona Andrews merch store will focus instead on book tie-in items, such as vellum inserts meant to go into the hardcover, bookmarks, and similar goodies.

And speaking of goodies, here is the Zoom recording from Saturday, where Ilona and Gordon answered your questions about This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me.

If you would like to use the transcript function on YouTube, click on the video description or the three-dot menu, and select Show transcript.

Thank you all for the incredible enthusiasm, the thoughtful questions, and the general release-week chaos. The BDH has been in magnificent form.

The post Art & Zoomies first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Our store has been cloned by a scam artist. Meaning it has been copied in its entirety and reproduced elsewhere. It is down now thanks to the quick action by the registrar and vigilance of the BDH.

Unfortunately, in the age of AI it is very easy to copy sites. This will happen again.

PURCHASE ONLY FROM THE REAL STORE

At the top of this site you will see a banner that says OUR STORE.

Use ONLY that link, directly from our site.

The real store has been unlocked pending the investigation. We are super not ready to open, so the merch sales are locked for now but books are available. I will try to work on it this weekend, so we at least have something.

That thing about cloning myself – I really need to look into it.

PS: Mod R takeover!

While Ilona cracks on with somatic cell nuclear transfer, I am taking over to remind everyone there will be a:

Zoom Q&A tomorrow with Ilona and Gordon at 10:00 am Central Time

to celebrate the release of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me!

For everyone who did not manage to get a space: as always the recording will be uploaded to the IA moderator account on YouTube early next week with captions enabled.

YouTube’s own transcript function is now good enough that I won’t be posting a separate transcript this time. Spoiler discussion will be limited by House Andrews’ desire to protect us from ourselves and by the covenant of the traditional publisher contract.

See you tomorrow!

The post Fake Store first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Mod R has faithfully gathered your questions for the upcoming zoom, and I am going to ask you to rethink some of them. You’re asking things like who is the author, who Maggie ends up, and so on. Those are the questions that will be answered in the future books.

We cannot spoiler the story for you. Most of you probably made it past Chapter 23. How much less of a moment would it have been if you knew about it in advance? We want to give you as much excitement as we can.

Let us mess with your emotions. That’s what we do for a living.

We are also contractually precluded from telling you too much about Book 2. Tor is very specific that everything is confidential.

Plushies

We are very excited to announce a partnership with Andrielle of Phylogeny Unlimited. Andrielle is a biologist by training, and she has developed a line of prehistoric creatures for the Paleontological Research Institution. It’s called Paleozoic Pals, and they are hilariously anatomically correct, as in the number of segments on the trilobites and tentacles on the nautiloids is scientifically accurate.

Andrielle has a kickstarter right now, and I jumped on it so fast.

There are 6 days left, so if you are in the market for your own prehistoric sloth, I would get it now.

Right now Andrielle is working on a prototype of Sushi. We will likely aim for two sizes – a huggable friend and a desktop friend. This process takes time. We want to make sure that the toys are washable and are stuffed with fire-retardant stuffing, so they don’t catch fire if you throw them into the dryer.

That is a nightmare I didn’t know I needed, but from my research into plushies, apparently this can happen.

We know a lot of you have kids and pets, and stuffies might be stolen and may need to be washed. Actually, a funny story, while we were signing at Tropes and Trifles, the very good boy I posted before stole a toy from a customer. The toy was immediately recovered, and huge apologies were offered. The customer laughed it off, but just in the event something like this happens, we want the toy to survive the cleaning.

This process takes time, because we need to make sure the toy is cute, safe, and worth purchasing. We are aiming for Spring 2027 for availability. We know it’s a long way off, but we want to make sure that we do it right.

The App

We have an app in the works. It will allow you to keep track of the our books, it will offer feed from the blog, and have achievements, discounts, and some exclusive content. Nothing too ground-breaking, so please don’t go into full FOMO (fear of missing out.) It is being beta tested now. I have some screenshots for you.

This app is not a replacement for the newsletter. It will still be emailed.

This app is for people who want to make sure they don’t miss things and want to keep track of their reading. It will let you access blog posts and fiction. So if you are stuck in a doctor’s office and don’t want to go through the trouble of opening the browser and looking for the site, you should be able to just tap the app open and read the latest things.

We anticipate it going live sometime around the beginning of summer. We are launching for iPhone only, because coding for Android is different and more involved, and we don’t know what the response to this will be, so we need to see if people are interested.

The Game

So this very premature, but Kid 2 is working on a game. It is a sole-developer project right now, and it will be set in the Innkeeper Universe. Right now it’s a farming sim, where you crash land on a planet and have to survive. This project is a long way off. But she was very touched by how much everyone loved This Kingdom, and she made this little video for you.

So this is technically a Chi moment, because this little alien is a muckrat, but this was just a quick wave to say hello to BDH.

We will probably not update you on this until there is a demo. Right now it’s all core mechanics and technical challenges like making sure that when you chop a tree down, logs appear, and then you can put them into your inventory.

Merch Store

We are pushing the opening to May. There is just too much going on right now, and I really want to have vellum in my hands before we open. So the vellum has been ordered, and once I can actually see what it looks like in the book, we will be taking preorders.

We are still doing publicity. We still have interviews, and we are still signing things, and now we will be signing more things, because one special edition tripled their print run and another special edition has been just sold. This is…. #5? #6? I don’t even know. We managed to write twice this week, and it’s Thursday. Argh. I just want to get through this battle.

My philosophy is that if we don’t write, there will be nothing to promote, so we have to concentrate on the manuscript.

But if you are looking for prints, Helena’s store is open and Luisa’s store will be opening soon.

Someone asked before if it’s better to buy prints from us or the artists. If you want prints, please buy them from the artists.

We do not offer prints. We probably will not offer calendars.

We will be offering book-tie in items, like vellum, which is meant to be inserted into the hardcover. We would prefer that the artists benefited from their art through print sales. We specifically left those items to the artists’ discretion.

We will have a print round up for you when everyone sets up their stores.

The post Housekeeping, Plushies, Games, Etc first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Thank you so much to everyone who had come to see us at the signing. You guys are absolute best. If you read my tour summary, you probably know by now that book tours tend to be grueling. Meeting you is the only reason we actually go on tour. It’s not the sales – sorry, bookstores, and it’s not the publisher’s requests – it’s you. We absolutely love hanging out with you.

Now, to own up to some logistical issues: we have reached the point where the signings draw 200+ people. The Horde is mighty. We will probably have to limit signing of the stock from home in the future. We have some reports from people who came to the signing but could not stay long enough to get their book signed.

Our policy is always to defer to the store; however, we do specify that if you have mobility or health issues, small children, or pressing time commitments, we will accommodate you and you should be moved to the front of the line. That has been our touring policy since the very first tour. In the future, if you are attending, please let the store staff know.

We are very sorry if you missed us. We will try to get a couple of informal meet and greets in Austin area, probably one in the north, in Round Rock and one in the south. You can come, chat with us, and get you stuff signed.

This is not special-trip worthy unless you guys actually want to have a longer event, in which case I can rope a couple of local authors into it, and we can have an extended meet and greet. I can rent a hotel conference room very cheaply, we can park ourselves in there for the day, and I am sure I can get a local bookstore help us out with purchases. So let me know in the comments if that’s something you want to do.

Bookplates:

Sushi bookplates look like this. They are crack and peel, meaning you bend them and peel off the backing. We’ve received a lot of requests for these, so here is the deal: we are finishing signing 2,600 for a special edition, and then we are moving onto the store requests. Once we are done there, we will try to open the bookplates for general readership through the store. Unfortunately, we will have to charge you a small fee for the shipping and processing. So it might be like, I don’t know, $3-5 for ten or something. But we must honor our retail and special edition commitments first.

Despite us actively discouraging gift giving, you still brought us loot. We got books, treats, wine, and yarn. I am not going to shoot myself in the foot and tell you all about them, because we are very grateful. Please do not take this as encouragement for more gift giving. First, as grateful as we are, you already have given us a gift but purchasing and reading our work. Second, we have limited room in our suitcases. Meeting is is honestly enough. It makes us so happy.

First, I must tell you about this tea. Someone gave it to us at the signing, and I almost did a little dance.

This is Sencha Earl Grey Starlight. So I am not actually a fan of Earl Grey. I had gone overboard on drinking it at one point and kind of burned out on it.

This is unbelievably delicious. It tastes of creamy vanilla, and the traditional Earl Grey citrus is not the main star, but more of a supporting player. I am hoarding it. In fact, I am going to get up and brew myself a cup of this right now as a special treat for having done the taxes.

You can purchase this yumminess at Sencha.

Many thanks for my new drug of choice.

Second, BDH gifted us a couple of books. Full disclosure, I haven’t read either of them, because we are back at work on Maggie 2, so these are not recommendations. Just a thank you for the gifts.

Heart of the Siren by Alice Hanov

Alice’s website describes this as “dark romantasy” with spice.

The Doodle Knit Directory by Jamie Lomax

This tour demonstrated that all of you have zero intention to help me kick my knitting addiction

Kentucky Horse Country by James Archambeault

A very beautiful picture book that will be living on our coffee table. I looked through it and there are gorgeous horse pictures inside

This trip also reaffirmed that we both love Kentucky. There is just something about Lexington. We really love the city and the green pastures that roll just outside of it. Our biggest regret is not spending more time there. Also we were hoping to see Gwenda Bond, with whom we’ve been friendly online for years. Unfortunately, we missed that opportunity.

The person who crocheted this beautiful shawl is going through her second battle with cancer. Thank you so much for this gift. We are thinking of you. You’ve beaten it once, you can do it again. Please don’t lose hope.

Next we have this amazing bag. It was a most fortunate gift, because I stuffed all of the yarn and small gifts into it.

Mmmm, yarn. So excited about this.

I also bought some yarn in Baltimore.

It was pretty and I got tempted.

We were also give delicious things, and I have no pictures of those for obvious reasons.

Thank you again for the fantastic tour. ::hug::

The post Signings, Yarn, and Other Gifts first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

By popular demand – I wonder if other authors get so many demands, heh – here is the Cast of Characters. This is a basic version. You will have to wait until Maggie’s site, the app, or the Companion to Kair Toren, for the images version.

This thing is hyperlinked and should be spoiler free. Not every character is included. Some are meant to be discovered and others are too minor to mention.

Blanket permission to print and share on socials.

This Kingdom Cast of CharactersDownload

The post This Kingdom’s Cast of Characters first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Yesterday, we read about Maggie going on tour and witnessed some of the excitement of being able to see Ilona and Gordon live.

But not all of us could be there to ask our questions and give them our love. So now we’re fixing that:

Maggie Zoom

Ilona and Gordon will be hosting a Zoom Q&A on Saturday, April 18th at 10 AM Central Time to chat with us about everything This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me and what comes next.

REGISTER FOR MAGGIE ZOOM

I have almost three hundred questions gathered for the Zoom list, so over the weekend I’ll be whittling them down into something manageable for our brave authors to tackle. To be fair to the Horde, they knew exactly what they were doing! Of course we barsaed all over it.

If you have more questions, please continue the discussion on the spoiler thread for now. Since the book is longer than usual, we need to protect our fellow readers who may still be making their way through it.

The Q&A will be posted on the Ilona Andrews Moderator YouTube channel a few days later, but if you want to interact with our IA live, please register as Zoom spots are limited.

The bit more

When is the Maggie sequel coming?

We wouldn’t be BDH if we hadn’t started asking this even before release day.

The good news is that House Andrews are hard at work on it, and it is shaping up to be a substantial draft. We like big books and we cannot lie, the other Hordes can’t deny, when a draft comes in with a wordcount high and a plot that won’t de…Ok, I hear you, Sir Modsalot out. 

As soon as the manuscript is ready to move to the next stage in the traditional publishing process (developmental edits), we will hear about it here first.

Ilona and Gordon have just come off an intense release cycle and tour and went straight back into writing the Maggie 2 draft and ongoing admin work. We’ll need to allow them a little breathing room so they can keep doing what they do best: telling us the stories we love.

To put to rest the conspiracies already cropping up thanks to my people, Team Facts be Damned: yes, this is a planned trilogy. No, there is no cruel joke at play intended to leave us with an unfinished series and just two novels like Maggie’s own situation. In over 20 years of publishing, House Andrews have never failed to deliver on a contract. The best thing we can do is wish them health, rest, and long creative lives so they can keep feeding the Horde for years to come.

And reread, just in case … If one day we wake up on the streets of Kair Toren we’ll need to know exactly which Duke to ask for help. (Jk, of course we would go to Clover.)

Audiobook news?

The traditional audiobook recording for Beast Business (Augustine’s Hidden Legacy novella) will begin soon – once it enters editing stage, we will be able to estimate a release date better and will announce it.

I’m very happy to share that the actor who was chosen for Augustine was such a perfect fit that he will also be recast as Pancakes Montgomery in the Graphic Audio dramatized adaptations of Catalina’s Hidden Legacy trilogy, which should make for a wonderfully consistent listening experience for us.

I also have a 70% off promotion for the Burn For Me dramatized Graphic Audio adaptation on Audiobooks.com, as a Friday treat.

I do not have any official news about the dramatized adaptation of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, by Graphic Audio or otherwise. The traditional audiobook, narrated by the wonderful Kristen Sieh is available from all major retailers.

International editions of This Kingdom?

German readers in particular seem to be very worried – keine Sorge!

• The German edition of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me has already been announced by Cove Verlag and is scheduled for September 25, 2026
• The Spanish edition coming from Editorial Hidra is planned for June 2026
• The French edition, handled by Éditions Bookmark, will also release in June, and will come in three formats: boutique edition with reversible dust jacket (art by Luisa Preissler), bookstore edition and digital

That’s it for this Friday update. Thank you again for these past two weeks of discussion, theories, laughter, and sheer joy of seeing the Horde in full swing!

The post Maggie Zoom Q&A and a bit more first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

The tour began on March 31 at BN in Arboretum at 5:00 pm. We came in a little early, were led to the back room, and shortly after they brought us out. We follow the nice bookseller to the signing space and see 200 people. And they all go, “Yay!” except that there is 200 of them and it sounds more like, “Rawr!”

We have a short Q&A, we got to signing, and we sign until 10:30 or so. Author math: 1 new book plus 3 books from home = 4 signatures x 200 = 800 signatures. 500 signatures is about 3 hours. We have an awesome time, and then the readers leave and we stay and sign stock. And more stock. And more stock.

We finally get through it and call our Uber, and it takes us home. We land, eat something – I am very proud of myself for ordering takeout to be delivered with perfect timing – it was left by the door by the time we arrived but it did not sit long enough for racoons to steal it. We eat, finish packing in a tired stupor, and pass out for about 4 hours.

We get up at 5:00 am, and by 5:30 am we are on the way to the airport with our bags and our airline apps. We get there, check in the bags, go through TSA Precheck and they send me right back. My TSA precheck is not there. It turned out that there was a typo in my KTN, the frequent flier number. Now that I know about it, I manually fix it everywhere.

We grab some kind of weird breakfast – airport food is always a little sus – and get on a plane. We land in Minneapolis at 12:30 pm. We get to the hotel, which is amazing. It’s called the Graduate and it is straight out of a Dark Academia novel. It’s right by University of Minnesota and there are lounge spaces and long, ancient looking tables everywhere. The students use it as a secondary Student Center. I stole pictures for you from their website.

It would be an amazing event space. Like I want to write a dark academia novel so we can have the book release party there.

We drop our bags off and get an Uber to Tropes and Trifles. The city is under siege. Every house and business along the road has signs ICE OUT and WE LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS. Minneapolis’ community game is strong. Deepest respect.

I will say that if you would like to visit, do not hesitate. We felt safe, and Tropes and Trifles takes great care of their visitors.

We arrive to the store about 2:45 pm and we are shown to the table filled with books. We keep signing but somehow the boxes keep coming.

We also meet a very good boy.

We presign the books until about 5:00 pm, when we get a little break to grab a bite. The only options around Tropes and Trifles were a BBQ restaurant and a bakery, so we grab an uber back to the hotel and eat at their restaurant. Nothing wrong with a BBQ, but for a signing event, you want something light.

We eat quickly, grab an uber, and arrive to the signing venue, which takes place in this amazing church. Except that there is no table. Usually there is a table, but this time, there are only chairs.

I have a pantsuit that only looks good when I am standing or half hidden behind the table. Had I know this, I would’ve worn a dress. I went with the suit because an ice storm was coming and it was cold. More on that later.

The signing starts and again, there are many people. We do a short Q&A and at some point, I do a Vanna White impression with a giant cover. Except I am not quite that fabulous, hehe. The session goes well, we switch to the signing, and we sign. And sign. Tropes and Trifles has a 6 book limit, so the presigned hardcover plus up to 6 books from home.

It takes a little bit, and we get everyone through, and arrive to the hotel around 11:00 pm. We grab a little sleep, get up at 5:00 am, and by 6:20 am, we are at the airport. We are due to fly to Chicago, where we need to catch a connecting flight to Lexington.

Remember the ice storm? It is spreading across the Midwest. Chicago is not accepting planes. The flight is delayed. We sit. We wait. We board. We sit. We wait. We deplane with our bags. We sit. We wait.

At this point I call Jocelyn, who is Tor’s publicist, and explain that there is no way we are connecting in Chicago. She magically manages to rebook us on a later flight. We should be getting into Charlotte at 5:00 pm now. The signing is at 7:00 pm. Plenty of time.

We sit. We wait.

We board. The plane is de-iced. We wait. We wait.

We finally take off.

We land in Chicago, speed march to the right gate, and stop. The domino effect is in full force. Our connecting flight is now delayed by two hours.

More texting to Jocelyn, who connects to Joseph-Beth, and the store graciously agrees to move the event to 8:30 pm. We had an unprecedented level of support for this. Thank you so much to everyone involved.

I check the email, and see a message from Mod R, which says, “Everything is fine,” which is usually a code for “The sky has fallen, but Mod R picked it up and put it back.” The website had crashed, and she had to contact the host support, who got it fixed in record time. I thank her and ask her to post the delay announcement.

We sit. We wait. We talk to other people who are sitting and waiting. We look for some place to charge things. We sit.

Finally we board and fly to Lexington. We land at 8:10 pm, grab our bags, and call an Uber, except the uber driver is 12 miles away. What? So, we cancel the uber and grab a taxi, and it takes us to Joseph-Beth. We are reasonably sure that everyone has likely left by now.

We make it to the store at 8:30 pm. Joseph-Beth – a beautiful store, by the way, and if you have a chance, you absolutely should visit – has two floors of books. As we are riding the escalator up in our travel clothes with our bags, we hear the “Yay-Rawr!”

Nobody left. We go straight into Q&A, and there are pictures of us with readers where Gordon looks amazing, because he always does, and I am wearing upscale sweatpants and a T-shirt that says “Easily Distracted By Dogs.” Sorry. It couldn’t be helped.

We get through the line – one person flew in from Germany, omg – and by that point it’s 11:30 pm and there is a lot of stock. The store graciously offers to stay with us until we sign it all, but we feel bad about keeping everyone late, so we agree to come back in the morning.

We get to Origin hotel, which is also gorgeous, fall on our faces, and fall asleep.

We are up at 6:00 am, we grab breakfast. Breakfast at the Origin in Lexington is a religious experience. Like it is so delicious, and it looks like one of those highly edited food shots. It was perfect. By 7:30 am we are in an uber and on the way to the store.

We get there, we are let in, and we sign stock. And we sign. And we sign. At 9:15 am, we had to leave for the airport, but we got through all of This Kingdom stock and we will be sending bookplates to Joseph-Beth for the rest.

We get to the airport, and the plane is delayed. We wait, we wait, we wait, we we board the plane, and then we are finally in Baltimore. As we are going to get our bags, Jeaniene Frost, who is co-signing with us, is texting me wanting to know if we are alive. I confirm that we are alive and we agree to meet for dinner. It is Gordon’s birthday.

We end up at a Brazilian steakhouse. But this point I am so tired of eating highly fried and rich food, that I find some marinated eggplant on the salad bar and I eat it like there is no tomorrow. Midway through dinner, a woman comes over and gives us this hesitant look.

Me: Hello.

She: ILOVEYOURBOOKS.

We took lovely pictures, chatted, and it was a very cute moment. She couldn’t get a ticket to the signing because it was sold out and ended up at the restaurant by pure chance. Serendipity. On tour all of our time belongs to the readers and book stores, and all of us are very glad that we were able to meet her.

The next day, we make a quick excursion to Collector Corner and Black Sheep Yarn Store, where I buy yarn I do not need. Black Sheep Yarn store is lovely and they tried very hard to explain their return policy to me. Returning yarn. Heh.

We meet with Jeaniene and her sister for a quick brunch, get back to the hotel, change clothes and arrive to the BN. We are welcomed, led to the back room, and then brought out.

No table. Oh, and it’s worse. It’s not chairs. It’s tall bar stools. Note to self: dresses next time.

We have a ton of people again, everyone is asking questions, I scroll through Maggie 2 to prove that it existed. Jeaniene Frost is MC’ing like there is no tomorrow, and then we all transition to the signing.

There were some heavy moments at this signing and some happy moments. At one point someone accidentally grabbed my phone instead of theirs, and somehow took a bunch of pictures – I must’ve happened to unlock it just before – and then apologized profusely. I texted the pictures back and took a photo for posterity. Hehe.

We signed until just after 9:00 pm, and as soon as we finished, the lights went out, and we had to go. We got back to the hotel, fell on our faces, and slept until 4:00 am, at which point the uber came to pick us up so we can be at the airport in time. We got there at 5:00, gave them our bags, somehow dragged ourselves through the security and to our gate, waited again, got on a plane, flew, landed, ubered, and at noon walked through the door of our house.

We put the bags aside, changed clothes, sat on the couch, and fell asleep until 4:00 pm, when it was time to pick up the dogs from boarding.

It was an amazing tour! We got to meet so many people. Thank you for all of the smiles and the old, well-loved books. It was our privilege to spend time with you!

And now I have the grand announcement. Ta-da!

Here we go:

• #9 New York Times Bestseller in Hardcover and Ebook
• #10 New Times Bestseller in Hardcover
• #14 USA Today Bestseller (We have #14 bestselling book out all books in US)
• #2 Sunday Times Bestseller in UK – huge thank you to Waterstones
• #6 Independent Books Store Bestseller

And we have regional lists:

• #13 North California Independent Bookstore Alliance
• #14 Southern Independent Bookstore Alliance
• #7 Mountains and Plains Independent Bookseller Association
• #8 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
• #9 Great Lakes Independent Bookseller Association

We haven’t had a true hardcover edition since Magic Triumphs. Hidden Legacy had very tiny hardcover runs, primarily aimed at libraries. We are coming back from an almost 4 year traditional hiatus (Ruby Fever came out in 08/2022.)

I love Maggie, but I also understand that it is a dense book with a lot of worldbuilding. It is not a YA/NA, it is not that spicy, and it is in a genre largely unknown to Western audiences. Books like that don’t usually hit the lists unless they have a film or TV tie ins. Tor had gone above and beyond to promote it, but between the long break in our publishing career, the hardcover price, and writing in a different genre, I didn’t expect any fireworks.

This is unbelievably amazing. I was shocked. Absolutely shocked. How did this even happen?

We worked so hard on this book, and right now all of it seems worth it.

Thank you.

You are the best.

The post The Tour and the Lists first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Okay, so I screwed up. When UK sent the packet listing the editions, the wording was slightly confusing.

This is the regular UK hardcover.

Regular UK Hardcover

This is the International HB hardcover.

International UK HB hardcover

It is my fault. I did not confirm. The pack of promotional materials made it seem like this was the regular UK hardcover, so we advertised it as such. Nobody caught it on our end or the publisher’s. The publisher sent advertising materials with the plain edge hardcover on April 1st, which we did not see until this Monday because we were on tour. This is on me. I am very sorry.

My suggestion is to return the book. Right now the only way to get sprayed edges in UK is to buy the Waterstones Edition, so if you want the sprayed edges, I would return and purchase the Waterstones. I am not sure where or how one would get the International UK HB, but I will have the ISBN for you when Tor UK provides it. Thank you to Kat in the comments: ISBN 9781037400674.

I apologize. It was not my intention to engage in false advertising.

Everyone who purchased the plain edge UK edition expecting the painted edges will have an option to receive a free ebook copy of the upcoming Guide to Kair Toren, which will include art and bonus material. We know it’s an inadequate compensation, but we hope it will help a little. We will provide you with the details on how to get that free copy closer to the publication date, which hopefully will be around the end of May/beginning of June.

We will explore additional options to make it up to you. Mod R is currently out for an important errand, but when she returns, she will forward your emails to me and I will contact everyone who emailed personally to apologize.

The post UK Cover Correction first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Hello, everybody. Mod R is taking a few days off, which are very deserved. The blog is now back in my incapable hands, muhahaha!

I owe you a tour write-up, which will be posted tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who came to see us! I will report on cities, hotels, funky travel, yarn, and delicious cookies. OMG, if you are the person who gave us the cookies, I must have the recipe.

Also, we have some admin that will be coming up: zoom dates, Maggie’s site, extras, art stuff, etc. For everyone who asked about the app I used: the app is still in beta, we need to fine tune it, and I promise once it’s done, you can have it,

Today I am here to let you know that Diamond Fire is out from Graphic Audio. I have some audio samples for you.

Sample 1. Sample 2. Sample 3.

Promo: I did it!

The post Diamond Fire GA is Out first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

No book is ever long enough for the Book Devouring Horde! House Andrews gifted us a little more.

This bonus scene is safe after Page 438, last scene of Chapter 40 of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me

Lady Maggie.

Doran jogged up the steps to the curtain wall and passed through the keep tower’s wide-open gates. After the bright daylight, the interior was steeped in pleasantly cool shadows. Summer was coming and with it, Kair Toren’s heat. Not that the heat bothered him, but he missed the southern coast. The low hills of the Golden Valley ringed in terraced fields that curved like ribbons along the slopes. The turquoise waters of Ceter Lake, where the air smelled of flowers and blooming trees. The golden sand beaches, gently sloping into a warm ocean filled with bright fish flittering through the translucent depths.

Kair Toren had a rougher coast, the hills more rugged, the sea darker with a harsher surf. The city itself felt rougher too, unlike the idyllic white walls of Dilem. He’d been in this damn place for too long. He knew he was homesick, and she made it worse.

Doran passed through the tower and stepped out onto the terrace overlooking the Citadel Garden. A large table waited for him by the stone rail, offering a glittering glass pitcher of red wine, another of water, and two plain wooden cups. Merro Ridan sprawled in one of the two chairs, his mane of blond hair hanging loose, Doran’s formal breastplate resting on the ground next to him.

Ridan gave him a wave. The wine pitcher sitting on the table was a third empty.

Doran took the other chair and nodded at the wine. “Started early, I see.”

“It’s fucking hot, and your armor is heavy. Do you want me to pass out from the exhaustion?”

“Keep drinking and you might.”

Ridan rolled his eyes, picked up a jug of water and splashed some into his cup. “Better?”

“I’m looking out for you. Be grateful.”

“Oh, I always am.” Ridan took a long swig. “Are you going to tell me why I had to drop what I was doing and play dress up?”

“What were you doing?”

Ridan grimaced. “Having a chat with our Redeemer guest.”

Ah. That. “Anything?”

Ridan shook his head. “It’s a waste of time. I can apply pressure, but you can always tell when a man won’t break. We’re not getting anything out of that one. We can either cut his throat or cut him loose.”

Doran stretched his legs. Trying to gather information about the Order of the Redeemers had proved irritatingly difficult. He appreciated loyalty, expected and respected it, but fanatics grated on his nerves. The way Redeemers revered Silveren was unnatural. He might as well be one of the saints.

He couldn’t get a read on the man. Silveren was… slippery. He trailed the Second Prince like a morose shadow, avoiding attention, dodging conflicts, like he was made of smoke. Half of the time, you forgot he was in the room.

They had invited one of Silveren’s kardars over for a stay. He wasn’t a prisoner, but he’d been strongly encouraged to partake of their hospitality. The man proved savvy enough to understand what the invitation meant.

Like most Redeemers, he had a sordid past. In his former life, he’d been in charge of a fort, tasked with collecting taxes from the nearby domains, which he had embezzled. That by itself was enough of a crime, but he’d dipped into the garrison’s supplies, and when the raiders came, the fort fell. He’d barely escaped Sauven’s wrath and found a place in the Redeemer Tower.

As potential informants went, he seemed like a sure bet. Greedy. Opportunistic. Untroubled by honor. And yet nothing they’d offered him so far had moved him to break his loyalty to Silveren. He was steadfast.

Doran poured a splash of wine into his glass. Looking for informants wasn’t uncommon. Silveren and he were playing an old game, and they both knew the unspoken rules. Killing the Redeemer kardar would escalate things. There would be a time for that later. For now, he would keep it calm and civil.

“Cut him loose.”

Ridan nodded.

That’s what Doran had always liked about him. No matter the circumstances, Ridan always preferred an underhanded solution. Scheming came to him like breathing, and combined with a healthy appetite for violence, he made for a dangerous opponent. But he didn’t let his urges cloud his judgement. Ridan wasn’t conniving; he was shrewd and calculating, the kind of advisor who never lost sight of the big picture. They were rarely at odds.

Ridan studied him now. “Do you want me to try another one?”

Doran shook his head. “Not now. Silveren will be wary. We have time.”

Eventually, he would have to take the Redeemers on, but open warfare was never his first choice. He preferred to trap and contain, and in the case of an entire knight order, the most prudent course would be to remove them from the field. An expedition outside the borders, a long campaign somewhere far enough away, something to keep them busy…

Eventually an opportunity would present itself, and the old buzzard sitting on the throne trusted him enough to be swayed. At the right time, it wouldn’t take much. A word, a carefully planned encounter, and the Redeemers would be off, leaving him free to fight his private war.

“Well?” Ridan toasted him with a cup. “Don’t keep me in suspense. Who is she?”

Doran smiled at him. “I have found the one.”

Ridan blinked. “The one what?”

“The one I want.”

Ridan choked on his wine. “Will wonders never cease? Come on, give us more. Who is she? Which family?”

“I don’t know.”

Ridan set his cup down with some force. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I looked into her and found nothing. She’s hiding.”

Ridan’s eyes lit up. “She’s a mystery then. You never could resist a secret. What’s her name?”

“Maggie.”

Ridan frowned. “Odd name. Where is she from?”

“I don’t know. She speaks like she’s lived in Kair Toren all her life, with the best tutors and a proper education, but she isn’t from the city. If she was, she would know what I look like.”

“Of course she would. Perhaps she would have commissioned a drawing of you. Pinned to a wall above her bed so she could gaze upon it as she pleasured herself.”

Doran allowed himself a small smile.

“Is she even a noble? Can you at least tell that much?”

“She is. And from a prominent family.”

“Oh?”

“It’s the way she speaks. She looks you in the eye. She doesn’t fawn, preen, or second-guess herself.”

Ridan nodded. “She isn’t checking in her head whether her words align with her conduct lessons?”

“Yes. She was guarded but sure. Several days ago, I went to see her with Berengur, and she was exactly the same then.”

Ridan sighed. “Still looking for his long-lost brother?”

“Not anymore.”

Ridan glanced at him, surprised.

“She told him where Pelegrin has been, and why he chose to stay there.”

She had told Berengur a lot more than that. The way she’d spoken moved him. He’d kept turning her words over in his head on the way back to the Citadel.

“How would she know that?” Ridan demanded. “I’ve had people looking for Pelegrin for months. Nothing. Not a trace.”

“You said it yourself. She’s a mystery.”

“A mystery with access to a wide web of informants?” Ridan tapped his finger on the table for emphasis. “This worries me. Is she an imperial agent?”

“No.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“She doesn’t have the ruthlessness.” Doran recalled her limping and smiled again. “She is smart and sharp, but there is little pretense there. She’s genuine.”

Ridan groaned. “By the Aspects. She’s got her hooks in you. And what did this paragon of virtue ask in return for Pelegrin’s location?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s worse. She’s playing the long game. What did she want today?”

“She came to warn me. We have a man hunter.”

Ridan sat up straighter.

They had run across that type of predator in Dilem. It was a gruesome affair, savage enough for Doran to seek outside counsel. Fortunately, a priest of the Scholar in Dilem had made a study of man hunters. They were rare, afflicted with a particular sickness of the mind, often unable to distinguish between lust and murder. For them it was one and the same, and they chased the thrill of torture and death as if possessed. Sooner or later, they made mistakes and they got caught, but not before they’d reaped their bloody harvest.

“This one hunts knights,” Doran said.

“Shuhoven,” Ridan breathed. “Damn. I never liked that asshole, but he was good.”

“So is the hunter. He has magic, and it makes him faster. Eliarde is his next target.”

“According to your Lady Maggie?” Ridan leaned forward, no trace of humor on his face. “Let me guess, she warned you and asked for nothing in return? Does this not worry you? You have been baited, you have taken the hook, and now she will reel you in.”

“Don’t get ideas.”

“Let me kill her. It will be clean and quick. Think of what’s at stake. Of what we’ve worked for. Think of how high you’re aiming. Why would she show up now, when you are on the cusp of attaining your goals?”

Doran shook his head. “You’ll understand when you meet her. Merro, I mean it. No accidents. Not a hair on her head. She is mine.”

“Fuck me.” Ridan stared at him. “Of all the women you have had, why this one?”

He had enjoyed many women. Some were beautiful, some intelligent, ambitious, innocent, dangerous. But he’d never wanted to take any of them home. The game of seduction had grown stale ages ago, so much so that he could predict how things would end from the first conversation. Years had passed since any woman could hold his interest.

There was something about Maggie that pulled at him. They sat in the garden, talking, and he kept picturing her on the balcony in Ar-Vellen, with the sapphire blue sea behind her. He wanted to show the castle to her, to see her smile at him, to carry her off to his bed and have her until she was exhausted.

If she hadn’t left, he could’ve sat in that garden with her for hours. She was gone now, and the moment he had loaded her into a carriage, he’d realized he’d wanted her to stay. He would rather be talking to her now instead of Ridan, and it irked him that she wasn’t here.

He didn’t feel like explaining all of that, and Ridan wouldn’t understand it anyway.

“It is reason enough that I want her.”

Ridan slumped in his chair. “I swear, you will put me into an early grave. Have you communicated your interest?”

“I hinted.”

“And?”

“She ran away.”

Ridan threw his arms up. “At last, there is justice in this world. The one woman you finally want doesn’t want you. I’ve changed my mind. I like her. Just a bit. Not enough to keep me from killing her…”

“Merro,” Doran sank some command into his voice.

Ridan grinned at him. “I got it, I got it. Not a hair on her head. Can I at least look into her? Is that allowed?”

“Yes. Find out what you can. Be discreet.”

Ridan put a hand on his heart. “When have I ever been otherwise?”

“I want to know who she belongs to, and where she comes from. Tell me as soon as you have something.”

Ridan beamed at him. “As you will, my lord.”

The post Bonus Scene: Not A Hair On Her Head first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

You asked for an art roundup guide to the main players of Kair Toren.

We’ve put our best agent on the case. Please don’t tell her any spoilers in the comments.

Unless otherwise specified, all art will be available as bookmarks, vellum inserts, and other goodies in the merch store when it reopens in mid-April.

Happy Friday, and happy (re)reading This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me! If you haven’t grabbed your copy yet, you can find retail links here.

Sushi art by Jenn Munson

I am stelka.

Maggie calls me Soo’sshi.

I know secrets.

Also fish.

The fish men complain. They make signs about me.

This means I am thriving.

You want all the humans in one place. So you can understand them.

I already do.

But I will show you. Watch closely.

Maggie art by @luisapreissler for OwlCrate special edition

This is Maggie.

She did not wake.

I fixed it.

This one is bright.

I stay. I watch the dark places.

Now she is mine.

She has den. I added fish.

Den is better now.

We keep each other.

Solentine Dagarra art by @helena.illustrated

Would steal fish.

Sharp teeth inside smile.

This one kills clean.

No mess.

No noise.

Like biting the back of the neck.

Hands smell like metal and endings.

I would sit close.

But not that close.

Sun Margrave art by @helena.illustrated

This one stands.

Like stone that remembers.

Keeps pack from tearing one another apart.

Does not bend.

Does not break.

Teeth stop here.

If gone –

too much blood.

Clover art by @helena.illustrated

This one runs the den.

Counts. Fixes. Decides.

No teeth.

But all things move when she moves.

Even the tall dangerous ones.

She lives where food is.

Calls me vermin. I hiss.

Keeps everything in place.

Man from the Garden art by @helena.illustrated

Human from garden.

This one is quiet danger.

Like a hunter who already chose.

I do not like being chosen.

Pretty. Not safe.

Watching.

Would not nap near.

Would not share fish.

Would not bite first. Maybe second.

Sleepless Duke art by @luisapreissler for OwlCrate special edition

Humans should be simple.

This one is not.

He feels like story.

Stories bite.

This one is above hunters.

Above teeth.

This one is storm.

He burns bright.

Many fish. Many hiding places.

Doran Arvel art by @helena.illustrated

This one shines.

Like fresh meat in the sun.

Wants to be watched.

Always watches too.

Mostly Maggie.

Teeth still sharp.

Like trap.

I stole his fish. I go where I want.

Tasted like flowers.

For a better Stelka-to-human translation and a tour of Kair Toren locations (including the full map of the Kingdom of Rellas) you can revisit Ilona’s kingdom art reveal post here.

The post An Accurate Stelka Guide to the Humans of Kair Toren (Character Art Roundup) first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.