Contemporary fantasy series centering on guardians of cities (maybe)

[travels_in_time]

A few years ago--probably three or four years, and I think they were fairly newish, although I could be wrong--I read a series of books that I would classify as contemporary fantasy. I believe there were four of them, at least at the time, and each one centered around a different city. One was probably New York (because they always are) and I think one might have been Venice, because part of the plot was about finding whatever item they needed under the water. I think each book also featured different characters, but I could be wrong about that.

The overarching plot of the series was that each city needed...a guardian, or basically a person that represented or watched over the city, and the books were the stories of how each person discovered that that's who they were and what they had to do to protect their city.

I apologize for the extremely vague details, and hope someone has a clue!

EDIT: OK, I've been searching for these books for weeks now, but after reading the comment below I tried a couple of different terms, and found them! It's the Hidden Cities series by Tim Lebbon and Christopher Golden. The cities were London, New Orleans, Venice, and Boston, and the guardians are actually called "Oracles". Probably would have made the search way easier if I could have remembered that. :)

Children's Book- Magic involved

[jaecheondaesong]

I can't remember too much detail except that magic was involved and it was centered around children, at least 3. One of the antagonist was a man who got caught up in the magic (he may have been trying to steal or exploit) and ended up getting the face of a rat which he later attempted to correct using plastic surgery. However, this is all i can remember, which is unhelpful i know.. :(

Young girl + dragon

[jaecheondaesong]

Im not quite sure if im mixing up two different books together, but i remember this one scene, where an older lady (an elite) is pretending to be good but is in fact evil, she puts these bracelets on the mc girl which forces the girl to do exactly as she is told against her will. As a demonstration of this power she forces the girl to lick the feet/sandal of her son(s?). Otherwise she leaves the girl to work with her servants.
Im fairly certain the girl is friends with a dragon, a young one who cannot fly very far or cannot carry her far.
I think she met the evil lady in a secluded or secret area where she was being taught magic before she was enslaved.
I believe the girl is part of a prophecy including the dragon friend.
Unfortunately this is all I can remember due to how i remember questioning the slavery part in what im sure was otherwise a children's book. (just seemed a bit more explicit than i was expecting)