History is unraveled by the victors.

Every equinox in in the hollers of West Virginia, Bitterburn Academy holds auditions for new mages. Nettle Birch is sure she’s the best they’re like to find. Brought up on moonshining and mountain magics, she slings spells stronger than any boy on the mountain.

But when her audition goes terribly wrong, the judges unable to see a single firework she casts, Nettle recognizes the shape of an insidious spell at work. Something at Bitterburn is stealing memories of certain spells as they happen, erasing entire chunks of time from everyone’s mind.

Determined to uncover the source of the curse, Nettle joins the Bitterburn Ladies’ Auxiliary, the gentile face of an underground organization of unlicensed hedge witches and spies fixing to overthrow not just Bitterburn, but the entire Mages’ Guild nationwide. A solid goal as far as she’s concerned—

Right up until she meets Adrian Rust, the new Bitterburn professor shipped in on secret business, with eyes as green as her mountain after a storm and a fae heritage he’s trying desperately to hide. Though he warns her off, begging her to run safely home before the devious plan that forced him here explodes into motion, Nettle just can’t let him be. Their paths keep tangling, their goals so tantalizingly, almost aligned.

With the clock ticking towards war, Nettle must work quickly to discover where her true loyalties lie and answer the question—

Is winning back her stolen memories worth burning down her future?

Don’t miss this standalone sequel in the Uncivil Wars Series combining the gritty, industrial flavor of Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett with the sinister mystery and romance of One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig.