A week ago, 17-year-old Lela Santos' best friend, Nadia, killed herself. Today, thanks to a farewell ritual gone awry, Lela is standing in paradise, looking upon a vast gated city in the distance - hell. No one willingly walks through the Suicide Gates, into a place smothered in darkness and infested ...
with depraved creatures. But Lela isn't just anyone - she's determined to save her best friend's soul, even if it means sacrificing her eternal afterlife. As Lela struggles to find Nadia, she's captured by the Guards, enormous, not-quite-human creatures that patrol the dark city's endless streets.
Their all-too-human leader, Malachi, is unlike them in every way except one: his deadly efficiency. When he meets Lela, Malachi forms his own plan: Get her out of the city, even if it means she must leave Nadia behind.
Malachi knows something Lela doesn't - the dark city isn't the worst place Lela could end up, and he will stop at nothing to keep her from that fate.
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