ARCHAIC

After Tess Halliday’s crooked ex steals from gangsters, Tess finds herself on the run in Chicago with her teenage stepson and ten-year-old twins. Then a mysterious messenger turns up with life-changing news: The biological father she never met has died, leaving Tess an entire island near North Carolina called Demonde. The inheritance comes with a mansion and trust — and a guarantee that Tess and her family will have complete safety. When she and the kids arrive on Demonde, though, Tess learns she’s inadvertently accepted a job: the sentient island needs a human trustee to deal with the resident gods and legends. And now that she’s here, Tess is bound by blood to stay forever…at least according to the island’s two-faced (literally) butler and the Mesopotamian goddess of the dead. Even worse, Tess learns that Phillip didn’t die of natural causes–despite Demonde’s promise of complete safety, Phillip was murdered. Caught between a sentient rock and a criminal hard place, Tess and the kids race to find Phillip’s killer and understand their place on an island of retired magic.