Aetherium Fallen

In the smog-choked guts of Aethelburg, a city of glittering spires and grimy gutters, Emma is a ghost. A thief whose life is a cold calculus of survival-until a violent outburst reveals a power she never knew she possessed: the forbidden, terrifying magic of the Void. Captured by the city's elite guardians, Emma expects a swift execution. Instead, she's given an impossible choice: die on a pyre or enroll in the prestigious Aegis Academy, the military heart of the very power that oppresses her people. Forced to hide her monstrous secret among the children of the ruling class, Emma is placed under the tutelage of Liam Oliver, the Academy's golden prodigy and a master of the light she is sworn to hate. Their animosity is as stark as the shadow and light they command. But when a series of ritualistic murders terrorize the city, framing the phantoms of legend, Emma and Liam are thrust into an uneasy alliance, hunting a truth that could shatter their world. They soon discover the city's greatest monsters don't lurk in the darkness, but walk in the sun, cloaked in honor and righteousness. To unravel a conspiracy that threatens to drown her home in a holy war, Emma must trust the one man destined to destroy her. She must learn to control the power she fears, even as it forges an impossible, dangerous bond with the boy of light. In a city where light is a lie, her only hope is to embrace the dark.

In the fractured city of Aethelburg, a rigid order of light-wielders, the Lumina, reigns from gleaming spires while crushing the shadow-wielding Umbral in the grimy warrens below. For Molly White, an orphan of the dark, survival is a daily battle fought with forbidden power. For Argent Guard Captain Dylan Hodges, she is a heretic to be purged. They are enemies, bound by a history of hatred and a thousand-year-old lie. But when a magical explosion leaves Dylan tainted by the very shadow-magic he despises, his world of black and white shatters. He can suddenly see both Lux and Nox-the light and the darkness-and with this terrible new sight comes a horrifying revelation. A fanatical leader is preparing a "purification" ritual that won't cleanse the city, but annihilate it. An ancient prophecy speaks of a Fulcrum, a power to unite both forces, and it points not to one savior, but to two mortal enemies. To save their city, Molly and Dylan must forge an impossible alliance. Plunged into a desperate race against time, they are hunted by Dylan's own father and a legion of zealots. Their only hope lies in mastering their combined powers and confronting a catastrophic storm of uncontrolled magic that was once Molly's dearest friend. They must become the balance their world has forgotten, or be the final witnesses to its oblivion.