The Stolen Shift at Substation 19

About this book

In Halvard, a Great Lakes mill city that still smells of river silt and hot metal, the municipal grid does more than light the streets—it pins something older and hungrier beneath the brick. Cassian "Cass" Wrey, a charming, burn-scarred night-shift technician, stole that guardianship three years ago in a ritual meant for someone else, and he has been paying for his sister's treatment with hours pickpocketed from sleeping strangers ever since. Now the grid is rejecting its thief: lights fail in patterns no one can explain, neighbors lose time they will never get back, and the city hires Dr. Nia Okonkwo—a seismologist with silvering temples and no patience for ghosts—to explain tremors no fault line can claim. She does not know the power was always meant for her. And Cass does not know how long he can keep lying to the one person who might see straight through him.