In Valestadt, everything has a price—and sin is a fatal disease. Every wrongdoing leaves its mark as Bloodrot, a slow-creeping sickness that leads to madness… then death. For the rich, violence can be outsourced. For the poor, it’s a paycheck that comes with a body count—and a clock ticking under the skin.

Talin Keller is a sinner with Bloodrot rapidly advancing. She works for the city’s holiest man, the Prophet, doing the dirty work so his hands stay clean. Talin knows her next job could be her last—until a new assignment throws her into the path of a shadowy figure known only as the Warden.

Talin sees a way out: get close enough to the Warden, trade his life for her freedom, and finally escape the Prophet’s grip. But the closer she gets, the more she’s drawn to the Warden’s sharp edges and twisted sense of justice—and the harder it becomes to tell where savior ends and sinner begins. Because the real threat isn’t just the men pulling her strings… it’s a conspiracy tied to the past Talin thought she’d buried for good.