In the smog-choked guts of Aethelburg, a city of glittering spires and grimy gutters, Emma is a ghost. A thief whose life is a cold calculus of survival-until a violent outburst reveals a power she never knew she possessed: the forbidden, terrifying magic of the Void. Captured by the city's elite guardians, Emma expects a swift execution. Instead, she's given an impossible choice: die on a pyre or enroll in the prestigious Aegis Academy, the military heart of the very power that oppresses her people.
Forced to hide her monstrous secret among the children of the ruling class, Emma is placed under the tutelage of Liam Oliver, the Academy's golden prodigy and a master of the light she is sworn to hate. Their animosity is as stark as the shadow and light they command. But when a series of ritualistic murders terrorize the city, framing the phantoms of legend, Emma and Liam are thrust into an uneasy alliance, hunting a truth that could shatter their world.
They soon discover the city's greatest monsters don't lurk in the darkness, but walk in the sun, cloaked in honor and righteousness. To unravel a conspiracy that threatens to drown her home in a holy war, Emma must trust the one man destined to destroy her. She must learn to control the power she fears, even as it forges an impossible, dangerous bond with the boy of light. In a city where light is a lie, her only hope is to embrace the dark.
