In Lancut, debt is a death sentence.

...and Julian is being crushed by it.

His only escape is an internship he never wanted, working under President Sands, the architect of the surveillance discs that track every citizen and can end a life with a single command. The work betrays everything he believes in, stripping him to the bone and leaving him ready to vanish altogether.

His one constant is Des: the brilliant, frustrating, and magnetic man he's grown up beside. But Julian has spent years sure that Des can't ever know the many secrets he hides.

When the echoes of rebellion intensify, Julian is torn between two realities: Power in a system rotting from within, or risking everything for the fragile chance at freedom and the person he cares about most.

In a society festering with cruelty and deceit, trusting the wrong person could mean losing the little he has left.