Stramburg

Crescent Moon City is a city of monsters, both literal and metaphorical. Robber barons hoard the wealth of industry, gangs fight for what capital remains, and vampires and other creatures lurk unseen in the shadows. When a young con artist named Lavinia Whalen runs afoul of one of these monsters, she is saved by the Order of the Effentimoi, an ancient and mysterious band of monster hunters dedicated to keeping them in the shadows. Of these monsters, though, the one feared most by the Effentimoi are the malleitai: warlocks who have sold their souls to strange and malicious powers. When she tries to join, her eagerness to prove herself raises concerns with her instructor, Julien Delacroix, himself a malleitas trying to use his powers for good before his debt is due, who fears she will make the same mistake as he did. But an ill-fated mission to the cursed ruins of a lost university and the long-waiting betrayal of their comrade Gabriel Stramburg will put Lavinia’s resolve and Julien’s hopes to the test.