The dawn of revolution approaches. We will not look away…. Something is rotting in the city of Emaldin. Those outside of the Pod could tell you that, if they weren’t too exhausted to open their eyes. Citizens spend their days slaving away under the brutal, all-seeing eye of the Council for a chance to get closer to the towering structure at the centre of the city, and the safety and utopia it promises. Valencia was supposed to be one of the lucky ones. Plucked from a life of crime, the Institute promised her a ticket to an easier life inside of the Pod, if only she could make it to graduation. Or so they claimed. Instead, she found herself reawakening at the bottom of a polluted river, back from the dead with a lethal touch. For years, Valencia has kept her identity secret, slipping under the radar of the Council as the deadly shadow of one of Emaldin’s most dangerous, always believing that what happened to her was an accident to be made the best of. A weapon, for her to wield. Until she realizes she hasn’t been the one wielding it. Until the wrong life, at the wrong time, gets cut short. On the run, she is reunited with Eli- a ghost from her past with the most nebulous of loyalties. She must work to untangle the web of deceit surrounding the Institute and find the truth of Emaldin… even if it means letting go of every truth she’s ever known.

It's been a year since Valencia plummeted through the windows of the City Centre, the key to the secrets of Emaldin's shady Institute clenched in her hand. A year since she last used her curse on another. A year since the only person immune to her disappeared. She's making it work. She's got a new name, a new place, a new life- and even possibly a few friends. But Valencia can't bury her head in the sand forever, and when a stranger shows up at her doorstep, claiming to know Eli and demanding the key, she's thrust back into the secretive game she thought she left behind. Things between the Outer and Inner cities are heating to an all-time high, and no one outside of the Pod can afford to ignore it any longer. Valencia must avoid falling back on old destructive habits in order to play the game like Eli knew she could. This time is different, though, because she's got something she's never had before: people to fight for. There's no time to spare; the revolution is already here.