To the city of Last Word, one of the last freeholds in a land rent asunder by magic, Sal the Cacophony comes with gun, a blade, and a burning need for revenge.

But when the gallows threatens to deny her the satisfaction of the kill, Sal the Cacophony decides to free her query—it’s the principle of the thing. And in doing so, she sparks a war that will shake the city’s fragile peace to its core.

To escape with her life and her kill, she’ll have to save a criminal-turned-companion: a Freemaker, versed in the forbidden arts of magic and machinery. But the weight of their secrets may be too heavy to let them escape in one piece.

I don’t think I’m someone who does a whole lot of shipping. Like, of course I can totally get wrapped up in a slow-burn romance in a book I’m reading, but it’s not often that I’m actively rooting for two characters to either get or stay together. I mean, if it happens, great! I’m just not losing sleep over it.

If that makes sense.

But that was not the case when I recently read Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes, the first book in his new series, The Grave of Empires. Because I was hardcore shipping Sal & Liette. These are two characters that have such a fiery, palpable chemistry between them, even if things are rarely easy for them. At any rate, The Gallows Black (which was recently dropped with no prior announcement!) is the story of how Sal met Liette.

And this is Sal the Cacophony we are talking about, so the circumstances surrounding her meeting Liette are, naturally, chaotic af & set amidst a significant amount of death & carnage. The story takes place during the early days of Sal’s mission of revenge. I’m gonna go ahead and leave most of the plot details out of this one, but it starts off with Sal attending an execution…as you do. From there, shit gets crazy in a big hurry, and Sal & Liette have to learn to rely on one another, whether they want to or not.

One thing this novella does well is introduce some of the more frightening members of the Revolution, including Resolute, a Relic Guard. This a monstrous creature, seemingly indestructible and standing right in Sal’s way. It gets…gnarly.

If you’ve read Seven Blades in Black & loved it as much as I did, you’re gonna want to read The Gallows Black. And if you’re thinking of reading Seven Blades in Black but wanted to see what this world was all about, you could certainly start with this. Sam Sykes is frequently outspoken about how much he thinks romance in fantasy is important, and I couldn’t agree more. And he’s outstanding at it, really. From the moment Sal & Liette meet, it’s just…oof…intense. The little details that Sykes throws in, like how Sal gets fixated on Liette’s big glasses & even bigger eyes, are just fucking delightful.

This world that Sam Sykes has created hooked me as soon as I began Seven Blades in Black. Sal is an incredibly charismatic protagonist, and she’s written from the heart. This digital-only novella fills in a couple gaps in Sal’s story, but moreover, it gives readers a gorgeous introduction to a love story that’s as passionate as it is complex, and as hopeful as it is potentially doomed.