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A Crown of Dust and Shadow: Book 2 of Monsters, maybe.
Paperback
Series: Monsters, Maybe., Book 2
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 7 2026
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.72
Height: 0.55 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
History remembers the heroes. It rarely asks who wrote the history.
Three peaceful years have passed since Pelegon's Retreat vanished from the king's reach. Eppo has built a life among friends, trade agreements, council meetings, and ordinary mornings-the kind no one appreciates until they are gone.
In Knossos, ordinary life has become a dangerous luxury.
King Minos has remade the palace in his own image. His face appears on every coin. His name has begun replacing the gods'. Twelve armored fanatics patrol the city beneath silver lightning bolts, while inconvenient citizens disappear through accidents that are never quite accidental.
Then a rumor reaches the throne.
A forgotten bloodline. A possible rival. A name that should have remained buried.
When violence follows, old loyalties begin to fracture. A weary soldier questions the difference between serving a king and serving a kingdom. A high priestess discovers that obedience can be performed as convincingly as devotion. Palace cooks, senators, smugglers, servants, and condemned prisoners find themselves drawn into a conspiracy built from whispered messages, secret passages, sleeping potions, theatrical props, and one spectacularly unlikely plan.
And beneath the palace, the monster in the Labyrinth has been listening.
To stop Minos, Eppo and his friends must return to the city they escaped, enter a palace designed to trap them, and trust help arriving from old allies-and from places no sensible rebellion would ever think to look.
But palaces are full of ears. Plans acquire shadows. And the poets have already decided who the heroes and monsters are supposed to be.
They may have got it entirely wrong.
A Crown of Dust and Shadow is a witty, heartfelt mythological fantasy filled with palace intrigue, found family, covert rebellion, dangerous gossip, misunderstood monsters, and the stubborn conviction that history belongs to more than kings and poets.
For readers who enjoy Greek mythology turned sideways, unlikely heroes, elaborate schemes, and monsters who deserve a better publicist.
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