The Living Core's Debt

The noble train explodes around Nora Venn—and the royal power cell vanishes into her blood. When the execution-bound repair girl brings a dead mechanical heart back to life with her bare hands, every patrol automaton in Veyra turns its weapon on her. Cold Inspector Samuel Grey is ordered to drag Nora to the council, convinced she’s a thief and a traitor. But the closer he gets, the more her touch awakens something beneath his control—and every machine she repairs restores another fragment of her erased identity. Hunted by the council, underground sorcerers, and mechanical beasts, Nora discovers she isn’t an orphan at all, but the living key to the city’s forbidden core. As Veyra sinks into the sea, Nora must choose: restart the engine and preserve the rulers’ magical monopoly—or destroy the core, even if saving the city means killing herself and the man who has become her only shield.