Beast Business (Hidden Legacy #6.5) by Ilona Andrews 
Series: Hidden Legacy #6.5
Published by Self Published on January 29, 2026
Genres: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Pages: 214
Format: eBook
Source: Amazon
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Augustine Montgomery is an Illusion Prime who owns a premier PI corporation and alters his appearance with magic. The people who have seen Augustine’s real face can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The people who witnessed the full extent of his power are dead. The illusion isn’t just the brand of his magic. It’s become his lifestyle.
Show as little as possible. Make them think that illusion is all you have. Your life depends on it.
Augustine lives by this creed. He’s cold, rational, and calculating. He doesn’t get emotionally involved. Then one day Diana Harrison walks into his office and asks for his help. Diana is a Prime, an animal mage who bonds with animals through her magic and prefers their company to humans. Something precious has been stolen from House Harrison. Something Diana must recover at all costs.
The two Houses are allied through a friendship pact. Assisting Diana is simply good business. And yet, there is something about her that disturbs the careful balance of Augustine’s inner world.
Neither of them is who they appear to be. Both would die to keep their secrets. But the enemy they face is more powerful than either had imagined, and saving the life that hangs in the balance will demand the ultimate price neither Augustine nor Diana ever anticipated to pay – complete honesty.
I really appreciated getting a better look at both Augustine Montgomery and Diana Harrison and their individual magic.
In the Hidden Legacy series, we spend a lot of time with Augustine Montgomery in both Nevada’s and Catalina’s storylines. Augustine is a powerful Illusion Prime but other than seeing his perfect face or him taking on the visage of others when needed, we didn’t know much about what it means to be a Prime Illusion mage. All Illusion mages mask themselves as they want others to see them and seem to all be able to pretend to be someone else. So what is the difference between a lowly Significant and Prime head of a House? Here we get a better understand of Augustine’s strengths and weaknesses.
The same can be said for Diana, who is an Animal mage and the Prime of House Harrison. We have worked with Cornelius Harrison for most of the books so far and we see his connection and influence with animals even though he is only a Significant in power. What would being a Prime entail over a Significant? We now get a peek at things Diana can do. We also knew that most animal mages have a hard time connecting with people as their focus is on animals. This is true with Cornelius and Diana’s other brother, who spends his time with a wolf pack. So why are Cornelius and Diana more able to make human connections?
In this novella, we learn that House Harrison found a mate for the tiger-like creature pulled from the Arcane Realm that Cornelius bonded with in White Hot and they recently had a cub. A very unique creature that many Houses are interested in. House Harrison is hoping if the cub survives, it would bond with Cornelius’s daughter, Matilda, who is showing great promise that she too may be a Prime Animal mage. When someone impersonates House Harrison’s security and steals the cub, Diana goes to House Montgomery not only because Augustine will know all the possible players in the Illusion Houses but because of his MII Investigation firm.
Because of the fragile nature of the newborn cub, Diana insists on working with Augustine so she can be there when he finds Kitty. Time is of the essence since the cub has been away from her mother for hours already and if she doesn’t feed soon, they will lose this unique little life.
This was a very exciting short story. Time is short to find the cub so the action was continuous.
The biggest plus in this novella was Arabella (the youngest member of House Baylor) becoming an intern for Augustine. In Books 1 to 3, we get brief references to Catalina’s magic and Arabella’s abilities but obviously, those books featured Nevada developing her magic and abilities. When we got to Books 4 to 6, we see the intricacies of Catalina’s magic and how she was able to develop and grow. In Beast Business as well as the attached short story, Arabella Saves the Day, the authors start developing Arabella’s magic to more that just transmorphing into a beast. Hopefully this is a set up towards Arabella getting her own storyline or at least showing up more in a novella series featuring Augustine and Diana as we left with some unfinished story between them.
Favorite Scene:
Augustine let go of Quinn, walked around the desk, and pulled out a chair, glancing at her. “Please.”
He wanted her to sit. Diana willed her legs to move, walked over, and sat. He lowered himself into the other chair and threw one long leg over the other. Fabric swirled, and his expensive suit was back in place.
The three men stared at him like he was a wolf.
“I come to visit you in good faith, and you attempt to kill me,” Augustine said.
“It was a misunderstanding,” Quinn offered.
He was at least fifteen years younger than his initial disguise. His features had lost their refined lines. His narrow face with close-set eyes and a long chin was ordinary, neither ugly nor beautiful.
“Is it?”
“What do you want?” Quinn asked, his voice wary.
“House Harrison.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Augustine sighed. “We’re wasting time.”
“We don’t know anything,” Camden said.
Augustine looked at her. “I was hoping to avoid it, but it can’t be helped.”
She saw her arms reform, her suit vanished in an instant, replaced by short white sleeves. The three men at the other end of the desk inhaled sharply. Camden’s face contorted, his eyes turning glassy with fear.
She took her phone out and pretended to check it, hoping her expression looked sufficiently calm.
Nevada Rogan’s face looked back at her through the front camera.
Oh. Wow.
“They are all yours,” Augustine said to her.
“Wait!” Quinn held up his hands. “Wait, wait, wait!”
Nevada Rogan, a truthseeker. To Diana, she was a friend. To everyone else, she was a woman whose magic could wrench your most powerful secrets out of you and leave your mind broken. Diana cleared her throat, trying to remember Nevada’s mannerisms.
“We didn’t take the job!” Words came out of Quinn in a tumbling rush. “We turned it down. We didn’t want complications. These complications.”
“Who brokered it?” Augustine asked.
“Sutton. I don’t know who the other broker was.”
Augustine rose. “Mrs. Rogan.”
She got up.
Augustine walked her to the door, held it open, and looked at the Hesters. “Next time you try to kill me will be your last.”
They left the office and walked out of the building. Nobody tried to stop them.
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