The Lavender Blade: An Exorcist’s Chronicle

For readers who loved New York Times bestseller Gideon the Ninth, Deards delivers a queer speculative fiction novel about what happens when a con artist exorcist becomes possessed for real.

A pair of con artist demon exorcists scam the nation’s wealthiest . . . until one of them is possessed for real

Colton and Lucian make a living conning the desperate with fake exorcisms--Lucian is the charm, Colton the trick, and together, they’ve turned deception into survival. Their work is dangerous, their romance even riskier, but they’ve always found a way to stay ahead.

Until Lucian is truly possessed.

A powerful demon takes hold, twisting his body into something unnatural, horrific, wrong--and no priest, no con, no desperate lie can fix it. With time running out and Lucian slipping further away, Colton has no choice but to learn real magic, break every rule, and attempt the impossible.

Because if he fails, Lucian won’t just be lost. He’ll be something else entirely.

Emma Deards grew up in New York City and earned her undergraduate degree at Barnard College at Columbia University, where she studied Japanese literature and biology. She was then accepted to The University of Edinburgh, where she completed her veterinary degree. She remained in the UK afterward, and since then has split her time between her day job as a vet and her truest passion: writing. Emma has authored a number of humor articles for In Practice, a veterinary magazine, and was the recipient in college of two writing awards: the Oscar Lee Award and the Harumatsuri Award. Her first book, Wild with All Regrets, came out in 2023.