In a dreamlike Hobart where whispering shades steal memory and face, Jack wakes with one terrible mistake behind him: he cut himself from his handmade tarot deck. His only tether to the living world is a battered red BIC whose flame costs him breath - and whose last flicker will kill him.

Then he meets Ally, a fiery survivor with half of Jack's card and a missing tether of her own: a Redhead match burned at the wrong end. Together they turn junk into charms and trinkets into shrines, carving boundary lines through an eerie, upside-down Tasmania while renegades hunt their talismans and Faceless things stalk their names.

To return to the real world, Jack must rebuild his deck before the lighter runs dry. To save Ally, he'll gamble that creation - and love - can outburn oblivion.

Gritty and tender, punk and mythic, The Empress of Fire is an urban-fantasy horror about art as a weapon, memory as magic, and two people who choose each other in the dark.

Ned Pickering is an artist, musician, and writer based in Tasmania. His work crosses mediums - from oil painting and Irish fiddle to contemporary fantasy fiction - drawing inspiration from the raw landscapes of his island home. The Empress of Fire is his debut novella.