The Mime Order

Following a rebellion in the Rephaite prison city of Oxford, clairvoyant Paige Mahoney escapes on a secret train to London. She is accompanied by her gang, the Seven Seals, which includes her mime-lord Jaxon Hall, her best friend Nick Nygård, and fellow members Danica Panić, Nadine Arnett, and Zeke Diamond. Sixty-one other human prisoners are also on board. To evade Scion forces, Danica, an engineer, diverts the train from its Whitehall destination to a station beneath the Tower of London. The group stops the train by triggering a fire alarm and proceeds on foot.

At the Tower, Nadine picks the lock on the Traitors’ Gate. As the group climbs over the battlements, Scion Vigiles ambush them, killing several survivors. Paige possesses a sniper who is targeting a young performer named Michael Wren. In his panic, Michael jumps into the Thames and disappears. The remaining Seven Seals are rescued by their getaway driver, Eliza Renton. Jaxon escapes separately. Three days later, Paige is in hiding at a dosshouse in Soho. Nick and Eliza visit and explain how they orchestrated the rescue after months of investigation. Paige reveals the truth about Scion: it is secretly controlled by the Rephaim, immortal beings who harvest clairvoyants for their aura. Eliza is skeptical, but Paige is determined to fight back and summons a meeting of the Unnatural Assembly, the syndicate’s governing body.

After ten days with no response, Paige ventures to Camden Market, where she learns Jaxon is spreading rumors that he has fired her. In a jeweler’s cellar, she finds four other survivors: Ivy, Nell, Jos, and Felix. She learns two others who made it to Camden have since died. On her way back, a rickshaw driver betrays her to Haymarket Hector, the Underlord of the London syndicate. Hector and his gang, the Underbodies, assault Paige for summoning the Assembly and dismiss her request. Paige warns Jaxon, who is dismissive and threatens to replace her. Nick moves her to a new safe house in Grub Street. Soon after, Grand Inquisitor Frank Weaver broadcasts a live announcement, declaring Paige and the other four survivors preternatural fugitives and placing London under high-security measures. A literary scout named Alfred helps her escape an encounter with a Vigile, during which Paige possesses the officer to create a diversion. She flees across the city and returns to the Seven Seals’ den in Seven Dials. There, she learns her father is being held in Coldbath Fields prison. Jaxon manipulates Paige into rejoining the gang as his mollisher, or second-in-command. She agrees, seeing no other way to survive, and alters her appearance.

Two weeks later, Paige attends a spirit auction where her real name is publicly revealed. She later confronts Cutmouth, Hector’s mollisher, who is searching for Ivy. After Hector’s gang raids the Seals’ market stall and confiscates a valuable painting, Jaxon sends Paige to Hector’s den, the Devil’s Acre, to negotiate. She infiltrates the building and discovers the massacred bodies of Hector, who has been beheaded, and his entire gang, except for Cutmouth. One of Hector’s bound spirits, the London Monster, attacks her, leaving a permanent scar on her arm before she escapes.

The Abbess, a mime-queen, is named interim Underqueen, and a scrimmage, a fight to the death to select the new Underlord, is announced. Paige becomes the prime suspect in Hector’s murder. Jaxon binds the London Monster, healing Paige’s arm but gaining blackmail material he can use against her. At a meeting of the Unnatural Assembly, the Abbess publicly names the missing Cutmouth as the main suspect, deflecting official suspicion from Paige. Jaxon announces he will enter the scrimmage with Paige fighting beside him. When Paige senses Rephaim in Seven Dials, she tries to flee but is stopped by Jaxon, leading her to secretly decide to challenge him for the crown herself. She collaborates with Nell and Jos to write a penny dreadful, The Rephaite Revelation, to spread their story as an urban legend.

Using ectoplasm left for her by her former Rephaite keeper, Warden, Paige activates the “golden cord” connecting their spirits and tracks him to the Camden Interchange, the den of the Rag and Bone Man. She infiltrates the den’s underground tunnels, the "Camden Catacombs," and frees the captive Warden. With Nick’s help, they escape a chase by the Rag Dolls. Warden explains the history of the Rephaim and their anti-Sargas faction, the Ranthen. Meanwhile, Nick learns Scion is torturing a captured survivor, Ella Giddings, and decides to quit his job. Paige is ambushed by Rag Dolls attempting to frame her for Hector’s murder. She then discovers that the published version of The Rephaite Revelation has been altered to portray the Rephaim as benevolent. Realizing the survivors are in danger, she investigates and follows a secret postal railway tunnel to the Abbess’s den. There, she witnesses the Abbess murder Agatha Lamb and confirms her alliance with the Rag and Bone Man. Deducing that Cutmouth is the next target, Paige races to Jacob’s Island, a slum for persecuted clairvoyants, and finds Cutmouth dying. Cutmouth’s last words implicate the Abbess and "Rags" in a conspiracy called the "grey market." Paige forms an alliance with Wynn Ní Luain Jacob, a resident of the Island, and secures funding from the Ranthen. She secretly applies for the scrimmage under the alias "Black Moth."

Paige senses Warden is in danger and follows the golden cord to Highgate Wood, accompanied by Nick, Eliza, and Zeke. A Buzzer, a monstrous Emim, emerges from a portal to the Netherworld and attacks them, biting Zeke. Paige nearly dies possessing the creature to save him. The creature retreats, and Warden and another Ranthen, Pleione, arrive to help the group. The group takes refuge in a safe house, where Paige and Warden spend the night together. On November 1st, the scrimmage is held in the Camden Catacombs. Paige and Jaxon enter the Rose Ring. Paige realizes the Abbess and the Rag and Bone Man are backing the Wicked Lady as a puppet candidate and kills her. Jaxon and Paige are the last combatants remaining. As the Mistress of Ceremonies is about to crown Jaxon, Paige reveals she is "Black Moth" and challenges him. During their duel, Jaxon attempts to bind Paige’s spirit, but she possesses him and forces him to yield.

Paige is crowned Underqueen, with Nick and Eliza as her mollishers. Jaxon breaks the Seven Seals and leaves with Nadine and Zeke. The Ranthen arrive with the rescued survivors. The Abbess attacks Paige with a poltergeist, but Paige’s protective pendant deflects it. Nick shoots the Abbess, and two other mime-lords deliver the killing blows. Ivy then testifies before the assembly, exposing the grey market: the Rag and Bone Man, Hector, and the Abbess have been selling voyants to Scion. Paige collapses and is taken to a derelict music hall to recover. She is woken by Nick with news of a live Scion broadcast threatening the execution of three captured survivors, Lotte, Charles, and Ella, unless Paige surrenders. Paige possesses a Scion commandant and confronts Nashira Sargas in the Westminster Archon. Her bluff fails, and the prisoners are executed after Lotte screams a final message of defiance. Nashira reveals the grey market has been their tool for years and introduces her "mutual friend," Jaxon Hall, who reveals his long-standing allegiance to the Sargas regime.