A standalone short story in the Syntax universe. An assassin has come to Tower 072, and no one can keep him from his target. Only minutes from escape, he suffers a violent seizure, collapsing in a service corridor. A lonely surveillance operator becomes the only person in the building to see him fall. Antho is no murderer, but in watching the killer stumble he recognizes something that links them together. When he rescues the assassin in secret, he finds the monster on his screen is only a young man, cursed with the effects of a trauma as outsized as his deadly skill—and somehow linked to the stirring of a terrifying power. Unable to walk away, Antho makes a choice that could cost them both their lives: He takes the assassin home. Revised Second Edition

Release date: TBA Niko is broken, as his city is broken. An unmatched assassin—yet still a just a youth, haunted by dreams of fire and blood, and robbed of free will. Little Brona is the spymaster, and the architect of a deadly web of blackmail, kidnapping, and torture. She is a kind of mother to him, but not the one he deserves. She speaks, and Niko obeys. The balance of power shifts when a beautiful boy comes between them, in a dance whose steps are no accident. His body can deny Niko nothing, yet his face hides a secret only Brona knows. But Niko may not get a chance to discover it, or learn how to live out from under her shadow. A monster stirs in the dark labyrinth of Niko's mind—and once it breaks free, not even Brona may be able to stop it.