:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/VE-Schwab-040226-2-45373419caba4664a262984a74e2e9ca.jpg "First Victorious excerpt signals a surprise return after V. E. Schwab's Book 2 cliffhanger (exclu...")
Read an exclusive preview from the highly anticipated October book release. First Victorious excerpt signals a surprise return after V. E. Schwab's Book 2 cliffhanger (exclusive) Read an exclusive preview from the highly anticipated October book release. By Nick Romano :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/NicholasRomanoauthorphotoadc9b60763e34711935cbf7b3d768d24.jpg) Nick Romano Nick Romano is a senior editor at with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more. EW's editorial guidelines April 3, 2026 12:00 p.m.
Read an exclusive preview from the highly anticipated October book release.
First Victorious excerpt signals a surprise return after V. E. Schwab's Book 2 cliffhanger (exclusive)
Read an exclusive preview from the highly anticipated October book release.
By Nick Romano
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Nicholas-Romano-author-photo-adc9b60763e34711935cbf7b3d768d24.jpg)
Nick Romano
Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.
EW's editorial guidelines
April 3, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET
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V. E. Schwab's 'Victorious' excerpt teases surprise return. Credit:
Jenna Maurice; Tor Books
*V. E. Schwab** closes out **her *Villains* saga** with *Victorious*, the third and final entry of the trilogy hitting shelves this Oct. 6. *
*Victor Vale, Sydney Clarke, and Mitch Turner are all a bit wayward after the events of *Vengeful* (2018), which saw the deaths of Eli Ever, EON head Mark Stell, and rampaging EO Marcella Riggins. In the first excerpt from the new novel, which ** can exclusively reveal, Victor is still off on his own, struggling with the realities of his condition. *
*Then someone he was not expecting to see again walks back into his life.*
*"A lot of [*Victorious*] opens in the first chapters on the concept of aftermath, specifically what happens when you no longer have a purpose," Schwab told EW in **an exclusive interview**. "Everyone is a little bit adrift. They're still in a purgatory. They're still hiding. They're not living normally."*
*Read the full excerpt below.*
Victor sipped a whisky—neat—and counted.
He counted the number of states he'd crossed—six—and the number of finished drinks in front of him—two—and the number of empty seats to his left—four.
He counted the number of hours since his last dose—seven—and the number until his next one—five.
He lifted the glass to his mouth and counted the number of other bodies in the room—eight.
Once upon a time, he would've felt them, too, been able to trace the elaborate pattern of their nerves, the current that ran beneath their skin. Would've been able to pull on that current until they buckled, screamed.
Now, the only thing he felt was the thin glass tumbler in his hand.
And the worst part was, he'd done it to himself.
Not that he'd had many options.
Ever since Sydney had brought Victor back from the dead, his power had been glitching, his body reenacting the same electrical surge that had stopped his heart back at Lockland, fifteen years before. After each episode, it had taken longer for his heart to restart, until it became clear the next death would genuinely kill him.
A fortuitous discovery, then, that he'd found a drug capable of suppressing that death.
Unfortunately, it did so by suppressing his powers.
Rendering him *ordinary*.
Victor drew a cartridge from his coat pocket and turned it in the bar's low light, studying the vivid blue contents as he counted the number of vials currently in his possession—four and a half—and the number he'd started with—six—and the number of days—sixty-three—until he ran out of Haverty's compound. Which wouldn't be such a problem except the good doctor was dead.
He counted the number of weeks—three—that had passed since the showdown at the Merit gala. The night Victor had killed EON's director, Stell.
The night Eli had killed Marcella. The night Sydney had killed Eli.
Victor's hand tightened imperceptibly on the glass.
He had waited fifteen years to kill his best friend.
And he was dead.
But Syd had been the one to pull the trigger.
Victor told himself that's what bothered him, the fact she'd deprived him of his closure, stolen his kill. But that was a lie. What bothered Victor most was that, for the first time in his life, he didn't know what to do next.
And he hated it.
More than the absence of his powers.
More than dying at Eli's hands.
More than the solitary cell in which he'd spent the first five years, after his arrest. Because then, at least, he'd been fueled by the promise of revenge.
Eli was dead, and Victor wasn't dead.
He was in purgatory. Not in the biblical sense—he didn't believe in that—but technically trapped. Tethered to a drug that kept him alive, but powerless.
He'd hoped, when he'd first stolen the serum, that it was simply a matter of finding the right dose. That the threshold, once determined, would enable Victor to keep the death at bay without giving up his powers. But there seemed to be no nuance. No degrees.
The compound was all or nothing.
The only reprieve, a narrow window of time after the dose wore off and before the dying began. A brief gap during which his abilities came rushing back, heady, electric. But it was a window measured in hours, not days, and Victor had the grim suspicion that it, like the time between his episodes, was shrinking. That it would eventually close.
Until he found an alternative remedy, he was bound to the clock. Counting every hour, every day until—
Somewhere beyond the bar, a dog barked.
Victor looked up, scanning the windows, and saw a large black beast standing on the curb outside.
It wasn't. Couldn't be.
And yet, the dog—Sydney's shadow, his stray—stared back at Victor, tail wagging in recognition.
He stood too fast, nearly upending what was left of his scotch, but by the time he righted the glass, the dog was gone. The curb, empty.
Victor frowned, running a hand through his hair.
He'd never slept well, his senses too keen, every body around him humming like a plucked string, but these days he was having the opposite problem. Without his power, he felt exposed. Vulnerable. Spent most nights hovering at the edge of consciousness, unwilling or unable to sink fully into sleep.
The lack of rest was clearly catching up with him.
He went to the restroom, was bent over the sink, splashing water on his face when he heard the sound of another man entering, followed by the bolt being thrown. He looked up, expecting trouble.
Read EW's interview with Schwab.
- Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books
Source: "EW Sci-Fi"
Source: Sci-Fi
Published: April 3, 2026 at 12:57PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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