The Last Keymaker's Blood Debt

The lock shouldn't have existed. The moment I opened it, a glowing blue mouth tore through the vault door and swallowed me whole. I woke up in Ashback — a living city that breathes, hungers, and feeds on people like me. The only way out? I have to forge the key myself. The only problem? The city's executioner already has his blade aimed at my throat. Kellan Rook was cursed to hunt intruders and end them without mercy. He's killed for the city a hundred times before. But when his blade meets my skin, he freezes — because my blood isn't just prey. It's the missing piece of his own curse. Now we're bound together: the huntsman and the girl he was born to destroy. Every wall we survive unlocks new power, new secrets, new pieces of the key — but every material comes from someone else's death. And the closer we get, the more I crave the one man sworn to end me. There's one truth neither of us wants to say out loud: the key only saves one person. So when Ashback finally closes its jaws around us both — who lives, and who becomes the sacrifice?