A Guide to Night Bird An adult romantic fantasy novel
The Pitch Ava can become invisible and walk through walls but can’t escape her warded cage. Destined to follow in her dead mother’s footsteps as a courtesan and spy for House Heartwood, she’s trained to get close to—and betray—those in the highest levels of society. But alone at night in her room, she listens to the steam engine’s whistle, plays her cello to the night birds, and dreams of escaping her prison. Until one stormy evening, a boy, Zev, breaks through her window and gives her a taste of life beyond the bars. Their chance meeting sparks a two-year secret friendship, until her eighteenth birthday, when her seduction training is set to begin. Instead, she wakes up to a grisly scene—a bloody trail, dead guardians, and broken wards. Given what she knows of Zev’s powerful abilities, she assumes her freedom came at his hand. She waits for his return, which never comes. Eight years later, Ava has reinvented herself as Night Bird, a vigilante for wronged women. She’s assisted by a misfit crew in her vengeful quest while untangling the mysteries around her mother’s death. But tipping the scales of justice draws the notice of House Heartwood and New Oster’s power elite, including one of the most feared men in the city, who turns out to be the boy who set her free. Reigniting long-buried feelings, she learns that there’s more to their past and his role in her escape than she ever realized. When she takes on her biggest target—the last man to see her mother alive and an agent of House Heartwood—Zev may be the only person keeping her from following in her mother’s footsteps.
For Fans of: - dual timeline - slow burn romance - found family - female rage & poison - knife to the throat - escape from oppressors - past catching up - isolated FMC - industrialized urban setting Books: - Serpent & Dove - Six of Crows - Book of Azrael - Lost Apothecary - Belladonna - Rhapsodice
Chapter One Only the night birds provided company in my caged existence. They were my link to the outside world, a fragile tether to life beyond my warded room. The name I’d given myself—Ava—was an homage to the beautiful creatures that kept me sane. They’d swoop and dive, triumphant in their freedom—something I’d never known and never would. When streetlamps glowed in the satiny darkness, and the night birds’ trills pierced the quiet, I pulled out my cello. I reveled in evenings like that, with thunderheads rolling, lightning rattling the bars, and mounting clouds blanketing the sky. It had been a hard day. My temple throbbed from the unforgiving slap when I couldn’t master a new dagger technique. After repeated failure, I’d become the practice dummy. I ignored the guilty blade decorated with my blood lying on the dresser. At least the jagged cut and bandage weren’t on my bow arm. I hated myself when I couldn’t get my lessons right. And even more when I did. The chaotic rage of the storm swallowed my music and roiling emotions. Pounding rain and the steam engine’s whistle hid the shouts and booted feet on the street below. Submerged in my own tempest, I missed any warning.
To celebrate 8🎉 MS requests, an updated #AgentGuide for NIGHT BIRD, an adult romantic fantasy ft:
🕰️ dual timeline
✨ invisibility & intangibility
🔪 FMC vigilante for women
☠️ poison & female rage
💔lost & found love
🫂 found family
❤️ or DM
#AgentsGuide #WritingCommunity #litagents #amquerying
