The River of Woe

In a world divided by a silent wall, the greatest lie is the one that offers you hope.

For Marcella, life in the Occientia is a cycle of grease, smog, and survival. A low-level thief in the laborer slums, she has spent years stealing scraps from the elite Gentry just to keep her family fed. But Marcella has a secret that even she doesn't understand; when she's cornered, her eyes flare with a forbidden golden light- a "Sovereign Spark" that the Gentry's scanners can never find.

When Acherian, a shimmering, Fae prince from the lands of Exterra, the forgotten continent, slips through the barrier to find her, he offers her a miracle. He calls her the "heartbeat of the world." He promises that if she follows him across the Lethean Reach, her light can heal the dying earth and save her people from the Gentry's iron grip.

But his world holds broken promises and a garden full of beautiful nightmares.

Her only hope is in a man the Fae call a monster.