Salt & Shallows

Nell Wick has spent the last ten years alone, sealed in a metal structure built beneath the surface of a war-torn world. Among the forgotten passengers in the Shallows, the coldest, darkest level, Nell barters machine repair for scraps of food and minutes of light.

But when her engineering skills earn her a rare seat at the Academy, her professor assigns a contest that could change her life forever. Complete the lost scientific work behind the city’s mysterious source of power, and she could claim her place on the Floor, where all the most affluent families are drowning in warmth and light.

In her eighteenth year, she must participate in the Concordance, a sinister government matchmaking program that is breeding more than just the next generation of passengers. Nell is unexpectedly paired with someone far more insufferable than her lightless life: Everett Rourke, heir of the same family whose name is stamped on every failing machine she’s spent her life repairing.

As the spark between them burns out of control and the power fails level by level, Nell will have to unravel the secrets of an ancient magic seemingly lost to time and decide how much of herself to give for the ones she loves before the city built to save humanity becomes its watery tomb.