Photo: Tor Books

Entertainment Weekly announced today that V.E. Schwab has signed a $1 million deal with Tor Books for a new fantasy trilogy as well as a standalone novel. The Threads of Power trilogy is set within the same world as the Shades of Magic series, which concluded earlier this year with A Conjuring of Light. The fourth novel, tentatively titled Black Tabs, will focus on a female assassin in futuristic New York City.

Schwab also tweeted the news, providing more details on what—or rather, who—to expect in the Threads of Power trilogy:

TL;DR A brand new series in the Shades of Magic world. New leads, plus the entire cast from Conjuring of Light. https://t.co/3BhCR2MBeD — Victoria/V.E. Schwab (@veschwab) August 28, 2017

I can finally stop waggling my eyebrows when readers ask if there will be more magic princes, knife-wielding pirates, and unkillable kings. — Victoria/V.E. Schwab (@veschwab) August 28, 2017

THREADS is set 5-10 years after CONJURING OF LIGHT. There is a favor, an unkillable king, and a girl who can pull on the threads of magic. https://t.co/J9l0b2ENeU — Victoria/V.E. Schwab (@veschwab) August 28, 2017

The new series is set to begin as early as 2020. Schwab is currently working on Vengeful, the sequel to her first adult novel, Vicious, but as she juggled projects, she’d found herself making notes on a world she thought she’d left behind.

“I never want to be limited in my creative process, and I have so many plates constantly in the air,” Schwab told Tor.com. “But I kept coming back to these Londons—and I had this one particular character in my head who I couldn’t shake, and so I kept writing.”

“Though the Shades of Magic trilogy is at a close, the world of multiple Londons is still so ripe for exploration—and we found there were a few stories left to tell about the Maresh crown, too,” Senior Editor Miriam Weinberg added.

Schwab is also particularly excited to talk about a project she’s only barely begun: Black Tabs, which she thinks of as “her homage to Blade Runner” with her own signature twists.

In the meantime, if you haven’t read A Darker Shade of Magic, a special collector’s edition featuring a glossary, fan art, and more will be available October 31.