Mask of Gold

Alchemy Empire, #3

The power of an empire is hers—for the price of all she loves most…

No longer apprentices, Minx and her friends are the newest members of the Theatrical Guild. They’ve been invited to the empress’s summer palace in Hellenia to perform for the nobility and seek patrons and jobs. Minx becomes the favorite of the royal family, but her newfound power means turning her back on the people who need her most. And it could tear her apart from Dietrich, maybe forever. 

Seaside Fiction With a Dash of Dark Fantasy Romance

Mask of Gold is the third book in the Alchemy Empire series. It’s set in the alternate universe of the Mercian Empire, a Victorian meets Futuristic world where steampunk magic fuels technology. Everyone is “totally cogged” about theater, but there are social lines that must not be crossed. An actress may dance with a prince, but commoners who clash with royalty will be harshly punished.

Coming of age is always bittersweet—the sense of loss combined with newfound independence. For Minx Mellor, it’s no different. She says goodbye to her old apprentice room the same day she gets to taste absinthe for the first time. And soon, she’s off on her first airship flight to the empress’s palace by the sea and a host of new challenges and adventures as an official adult.

Minx is juggling palace politics and an exhausting schedule of performances. Plus, Empress Antonia is teaching her to use her animancy powers—the magic of the soul. Being the empress’s new favorite means a level of power Minx could never dream of having. She longs to use that power to do good, to have a voice, to help people she would never be able to help otherwise.

But great power comes at great cost. And there’s a revolution brewing. Should she give up her values, her art, her love, to be the person the empress wants her to be? The one power she may not have is the power to walk away…

Excerpt 1:

The last item I took from my old room was the alarm clock I paid for myself with almost all of my fifth year apprentice stipend. 

A draft swirled around the bare beds and now-empty room. Goosebumps raised on my arms. And for one second, I would have done anything to turn back time. 

In a few months, two more little girls would sleep in those beds, put their treasures in that trunk. Maybe they’d sit in my class. They’d never know their room was full of the ghosts of those of us who had gone before. 

I shivered. This was not my room anymore. “Take care of them,” I whispered. 

I shut the door, locked it, and pocketed the key to turn in to Master Fenrey’s secretary. Alarm clock in hand, I walked down the quiet corridor and left the apprentice wing for the last time.

Excerpt 2:

Another agonizing, tantalizing heartbeat stretched between us.

Then he crushed me against him, pressing my head against his chest, arms like iron around me. 

He was shivering, his breath like gravel. His heartbeat pounded against my face. 

I tried to lift my head. Give him my mouth as we both wanted.

He pressed harder, trapping my head against him, groaning. “Friends,” he said, his voice deep and rumbly against my ear. “That’s what we agreed.”

I wrapped my arms around his chest, my throat tightening at the realization that he was holding me here because it was the only way for him to honor the boundaries I set.

The ones I seemed determined to break.

Alchemy Empire series Book 3, about 137,000 words