The Night Hunt

A monster who’s the last of her kind and a Herald of death team up to kill a God in this electrifying fantasy romance from Christo (To Kill a Kingdom). Seventeen-year-old Atia is the last Nefas—a creature who subsists on fear—and she has lived in hiding ever since the Gods, who seek to wipe Nefas from existence, murdered her parents. After feeding off a human’s terror, Atia crosses paths with Gods-cursed Silas, a shepherd of lost souls whose century-long punishment for his unremembered mortal sins is to guide departed spirits to the afterlife. When Silas dooms Atia for committing an unforgivable act, he offers her a trade: he will help her break her curse if she aids him in escaping his own so that he may once again be human. But to break each other’s enchantments, they must kill a vampire, a banshee—and a God. Complexly layered worldbuilding gives way to a fast-paced quest rife with ascending stakes and richly nuanced characters at the center. Via Atia and Silas’s alternating POVs, Christo expertly volleys between snarky banter and gory horror while spinning a memorable enemies-to-lovers romance set amid a page-turning adventure. Characters are racially diverse. Ages 13–up. Agent: Emmanuelle Morgen, Stonesong Literary. (Oct.)