City of Blackmail

Hero of the Reverse World – Book Two

Book Blurb
Hero of the Reverse World – City of Blackmail thrusts James Kim, Aegis City’s newly-minted hero, out of the fortress he’s learned to call home and into Cyralis: a decadent, neon-lit jewel where power is currency and blackmail is an art form. Sent under the cover of a mercenary contract to trace the monster–luring device uncovered in Book One, James steps onto the Iron Serpent train with a handpicked team of dangerous, dazzling women—led by glamorous villainess-turned-mission commander Vivian Nightshade, who is determined to guard both his reputation and his heart.
In Cyralis, rare men are pampered like treasures and traded like assets. Councilors and corporate queens line up to collar James with gilded “hospitality” contracts and tempting offers of wealth, status, and permanent residence. Behind the champagne toasts and glittering banquets, an elegant predator named Madame Rhys is selling manufactured monster attacks to the highest bidder, holding entire cities hostage with her secret tech. To expose her, James must navigate a world where every smile hides leverage, every favor has a price—and one of his own new allies may already be under blackmail.
As mercenary missions turn into urban warzones and monster swarms erupt in the streets, James’s Calculation power is pushed to breathtaking new limits. But it’s almost losing Vivian that forces him to confront the one truth he can’t model away: he loves her. Amid rooftop battles, council-chamber firefights, and a city-wide crisis, their slow-burn, “sexy but fade-to-black” romance finally ignites—right as the conspiracy they uncover proves far bigger than Cyralis alone.
City of Blackmail continues the monster-lure mystery from Hero of the Reverse World’s first volume and forges a fragile alliance between cities, even as it hints that the real enemy is still in the shadows. James has survived being a protected curiosity and a reluctant symbol; now he must become something far more dangerous in a world built on secrets: a man who cannot be bought.