Dark City Girls Books in Order

Dark City Girls brings Dalton and Adam Lance together again in the Fateforged universe, this time for an urban fantasy that mixes war stories, litRPG flavor, and late-in-life second chances. The result is rougher and more reflective than some of their lighter work.

The protagonist, Ezekiel Zane, has spent a century and a half as a mercenary in service to the Fates, the Fae, and anyone else who could pay for the best tactical mind around. Leading an elite company of magical fighters gave him glory and scars in equal measure. It also cost him the one person he ever truly loved.

By the time the series opens, Zane is done. He has retired to a coastal community full of renegade fae, shifter street racers, and ex-celestials, living a small life that mostly revolves around knowing when to roll out of bed and when to leave the bar. The wider conflicts of the Fae Wilds can go on without him.

Fate disagrees. A mysterious girl appears in his life carrying an artifact of staggering power, the kind of thing that attracts attention from gods, bureaucrats, and monsters alike. Old comrades and enemies surface with unfinished business, and the Office of Eldritch Affairs comes knocking with problems only someone like Zane can solve.

Across the first two books, he is dragged back into the field alongside a new band of women who refuse to let him sink into apathy. His long-dead wife returns as a banshee, a manic goblin girl gleefully wrecks his routines, and even a half-slime federal agent wants in on the action. Together they investigate rogue shifters, swelling tides of supernatural violence, and conspiracies that link back to Zane's own bloody past.

Dark City Girls uses litRPG-style progression lightly, focusing more on tactics, relationships, and the cost of going back to war when you thought you were finished. It weaves through the same Santo Domingo and Fateforged continuity as Demon Hunter, Isekai Emperor, and Trailer Park Elves, making it a rewarding read if you already enjoy Dalton's shared universe, but approachable enough to stand on its own as the story of a tired soldier learning how to live again.