About “Darkest Mercy”

The Summer King is missing; the Dark Court is bleeding; and a stranger walks the streets of Huntsdale, his presence signifying the deaths of powerful fey.

Aislinn tends to the Summer Court, searching for her absent king and yearning for Seth. Torn between his new queen and his old love, Keenan works from afar to strengthen his court against the coming war. Donia longs for fiery passion even as she coolly readies the Winter Court for battle. And Seth, sworn brother of the Dark King and heir to the High Queen, is about to make a mistake that could cost his life.

Love, despair, and betrayal ignite the Faery Courts, and in the final conflict, some will win . . . and some will lose everything.

The thrilling conclusion to Melissa Marr’s New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series will leave readers breathless.

Insights From Melissa

Darkest Mercy was both the easiest and the hardest book to write. I’ve spent the better part of five years writing these characters, so I know them. It was easy to slip into their voices, to understand their worries and hopes, and to switch between the myriad points of view. The hard part was writing the . . . painful parts of the book. In each book, characters I’ve loved get injured, but in this book one of my favorite characters dies, other beloved characters mourn their loved ones, and other dear ones make major sacrifices. Writing some of those scenes hurt.

This isn’t a book filled only with loss and violence though. Some characters finally reach the resolutions they have been seeking for a long time—in love and/or in politics. There were sequences that made me smile as I typed, that made me feel the sense of completion and balance that I’ve been writing towards for several books.

By the final page of the series, it felt right to write “The End.” I type those words at the close of each novel, and my editor scratches them out. This time, however, she called and said “I’d like to leave those two words on the page. What do you think?” We did. This is the end of a long journey for a lot of characters. I hope you enjoy the smiling parts enough to ease past the tearful ones.