Mercury Raine

In the glittering world of the ton wealth is as important as rank, rank nearly as important as connections. But nothing is as vital to one’s success in Society as having the right ghost. What is fashionable in specters changes almost as often as preferred fabrics and necklines, favored Diamonds of Society and admired Town bucks. Trading an unstylish ghost can mean the difference between social success and utter failure. And no one is more adept at facilitating those trades than England’s most sought-after ghost broker... Mercury Raine.

Mercury Raine is the most sought-after ghost broker in all the kingdom, with more ghosts than anyone knows and more secrets than one person should have. With a dangerous past threatening to catch up with him, Mercury has taken on the goliath task of training his new neighbor, Tacey Wilde, in the ghost brokering trade. Doing so isn’t without risks, but letting her and her all-too-knowing ghost simply walk away is far more perilous.

Mercury Raine has spent his entire life surrounded by ghosts. Little about them can surprise him any longer. But when the Violet Giant, a ghost well over seven feet tall and built like a boulder, floats into his local pub, Mercury is as shocked as everyone else. And when the mysterious mountain of a specter knows Mercury at first glance, he is justifiably wary. Mercury’s identity is a closely guarded secret. His past is a mystery even to himself. And, for the first time in his life, the fortifications around his heart have begun to crack.

Mercury Raine left London years ago, intending to never go back. Needing to never go back. His carefully guarded past is far too easy to piece together in that city. But the lady who has claimed his heart is being held hostage there, bait intended to draw him out. Determined to find her, Mercury takes the risk of returning to Town. Navigating the dangers that await him there will require all the stealthy survival skills he learned living on the streets of London and more than a little luck. But the peril that awaits him there is far greater than anything even he could imagine.

Aventine Manor holds far more secrets than even the ghosts who call it home are aware of. Mercury Raine intends to harness every last one of them to protect them all from the threat hovering on the horizon. The Forever Flame, a ghost rumored to be both vindictive and worryingly powerful, knows who he is and where he lives and is sending an unending string of bounty hunters to capture him. Failing to thwart the growing threat would mean imprisonment for Mercury and all of his ghosts as well as disaster for Tacey.

Aventine Manor is under siege, with Mercury and his ghosts in hiding. The Forever Flame has powers that defy explanation, leaving even the unshakable Mercury on edge. Protecting his ghosts and the lady he loves may no longer be possible. The dangers in his past collide with secrets Aventine has been keeping for a millennium. Only by unraveling those secrets and restoring what has been broken can Mercury hope to save any of them.