The Witch's Lens: A Novel (The Order of the Seven Stars)

Petra turned the last card over on the table to reveal the devilsitting on his throne. She had to tighten the muscles in hercheek to keep her mouth from giving away her amusement atpaní Novaková, who’d sucked in a startled breath at the sightof the card. Everyone knew her landlady as the hoarder oflesser town. The war had put an uncomfortable strain oneveryone’s pocketbooks, but paní Novaková’s shelves were stillfull of tins of food, bars of soap, imported tea, and whateverelse was impossible for others to buy in the shops. The womaneither kept the goods all for herself and her overstuffedhusband or charged twice as much to anyone who couldpersuade her to part with a slightly dented, slightly suspiciouscan of boiled beef. With her pettiness and greed, it should havebeen paní Novaková’s face on the card instead of the hornedone, but Petra couldn’t complain too much about her landlady,since the woman paid every week to hear her future foretold inthe cards. A paltry sum, really, but the money was enough forPetra to buy flour and potatoes for dumplings and squeeze outa few hellers to put toward her savings for a new roll of film.At the thought of dumplings, Petra’s stomach groaned under theweight of her hunger.“The card in this position tells us that you are holding back,”Petra said, tapping her finger on the Devil card while meetingher landlady’s eye. “You aren’t allowing your better self to shinethrough.”“What better self?” The woman straightened her back defiantlyin the kitchen chair. Even the thought of redeeming herreputation as a stingy-hearted woman made paní Novaková’sproud nose rise even higher. “I am who I am.”And I am who I am, Petra thought. A woman left alone tosurvive in an attic apartment after her husband ran off to enlistin the army. And why? Because the feckless archduke hadgotten himself and his wife assassinated in the back of their carwhile parading through the farthest reaches of his uncle’skingdom.... As World War I rages, there are evilsboth living and deadthat only a witch can see in a spellbinding novel by the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of The Raven Spell. With her husband off fighting at World War Is eastern front, Petra Kurkov embraces her fleeting freedom, roaming the city at night with her camera. A born witch, shes discovered that she can capture the souls of the dead on film. Her supernatural skills dont go unnoticed by the enigmatic Josef Svoboda. Hes recruiting a team of sorcerers to infiltrate the front lines, where the bloodshed of combat has resurrected foul creatures. Petras unique abilities will be needed against the most dangerous enemies of allthose ever present, undead, and unseen. Deep in the cursed Carpathian Mountains, the ragtag team meets with an emissary of an ancient organization founded to maintain balance between worlds. Photographing the escalating horrors is beyond anything Petra imagined. So are the secrets among her fellow witches. But Petra cant turn back. Not before she discovers her husbands fate and the myriad ways her magic is manifesting. To defeat an occult foe, Petra must release the power shes been concealing for so long, or risk damning a war-torn world to ashes.