Joshua “Ash” Drake is a man in hiding. Hiding from the past, from the horror of his life as a priest after the gods disappeared. Hiding from his emotions, denying the nightmares that haunt his sleep and the anger that fuels his days. Most of all, hiding from the truth—that no matter how much he keeps his head down, no matter how he clings to the echoes of everyday life, his city—his world—is dying. When a new technology offers salvation to his desperate city, Ash must reach out to people he left behind and step back into the world that almost killed him. But coming out of hiding now could be the worst mistake Ash has ever made. Because there are monsters in the darkness, feeding the chaos, watching the city burn. And once those monsters know his name, Ash will never be able to hide again.

Ash and the Price & Breckenridge team have brought water back to Miroc. They’ve bought time, but how long can one city survive when the rest of the world continues to fall apart? But before they can fix it, Ash and his friends need to understand how the world broke in the first place. And that means asking questions—the sort of questions that attract the attention of the monsters who tried to destroy Miroc before. Between new strangers moving through Miroc and the secret Jansynian project out in the desert, Ash has plenty of places to look for answers. The worst part is knowing who to trust, when any eyes could be hiding another shadow. When those questions lead Ash deep underground, to a city hidden away by the gods themselves, Ash uncovers a secret that will change the world. But only if he can survive long enough to share it.