khalalain
Sun City is beautiful in the way things are when no one looks too closely.
Once a year, the festival floods the streets with color, music, and masks. The rest of the time, life drifts quietly. People grow old here. No one leaves. Leaving isn't an option.
Lately, though, people have been talking.
Talk of the Outsiders is everywhere now. Golden-eyed, otherworldly beings, half rumor, half nightmare. They're said to lurk beyond the city walls, moving in shadows, bending reality in ways people can't understand. SunTear soldiers insist they're dangerous, and this time, people are starting to believe it. Silky doesn't know what's true. She's never seen an Outsider. None of them have. But the stories keep changing, and none of them feel right.
When a sudden discovery puts the most precious person in Silky's life in danger, everything snaps into focus.
With time running out, Silky steals a SunTear uniform and steps into the heart of the city's protective force. She must blend in, survive, and uncover the truth before she is discovered. One misstep could make her vanish.
Inside Sun City's walls, nothing is as it seems. Secrets hide in plain sight. Loyalty comes at a cost. And every answer Silky uncovers hints at a deeper truth, the Outsiders may not be the real threat at all. The real danger has been inside the city all along, watching and waiting, more cunning than anyone realizes.
But whispers suggest a darker truth: What if the real threat isn't outside... but within?
With time running out and trust in short supply, Silky does the unthinkable: she steals a uniform, masks not just her face but her identity-and infiltrates the SunTear soldiers from within.
Now moving through corridors of power with false steps and true fear, Silky must navigate lies, loyalty, and rebellion-all while praying no one sees behind her mask.