Twelve lives were set free but only one will enter.

Stories of the wealthy and magnanimous Rochester Alliance have carried Maddy thousands of miles to reach its gates while hoping it might be the one place that can keep her ghosts out. Except what if the fate she thought long left behind is simply biding its time?

The Alliance may boast technological feats and prestige, but it isn’t this gilded world that saves her when Maddy stumbles across the border as a refugee on the run. Taken under the wing of notorious thieves, the gritty urban underground becomes both shield and sword when her life is suddenly ripped from the shadows one Christmas Eve that brings a heist, a diplomat, and a secret threatening to drag her back to the one place she won’t survive. Little does she know that soon a ghost will slip through with salvation in one hand and strings in the other set on collecting an old debt that could change Maddy’s world forever.

If you give a rat a cookie, will it still eye your flesh?