Author: Cassidy Ellis Salter

In this YA high fantasy, four magical rivals must work together to survive a deadly competition. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Gideon the Ninth.

Entombed beneath a tooth-filled sky, the world rots. Those who haven't yet decayed inhabit Fourspires Castle, home to arcanists from the four disciplines--blood, bone, stone and botany.

But when the king of Fourspires is assassinated, the castle is thrown into chaos. To crown a new ruler, the arcanists and their familiars must kill or be killed in a bloody fight to the top of the Fifth Tower. For the familiars, who are the arcanists' servants and sources of power, this will mean certain death.

Nixie, a botanical familiar, discovers that this fate can be avoided if she and familiars from each discipline find four cursed keys and take them to the Fifth Tower themselves. It's a dangerous and deeply illegal quest, and none of them has reason to trust one another. But with just forty-eight hours until the competition begins, four tenuous allies must decide if they can bear to work together long enough to save themselves.

Publisher: Macmillan Publishers (MPS)
Published: 03/10/2026
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.06oz
Size: 8.50h x 5.32w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781547618637

About the Author

Cassidy Ellis Salter is a fantasy author who lives in London with a pile of bones and historical oddities they've rescued from the Thames. They have previously published two middle grade novels, The Bone Snatcher and Where the Woods End.

ceselter.com
TikTok: @cesalter