Kick escaped from Palos Verdes with nothing but a brass key her mother pressed into her hand before disappearing. Now she’s hunted across the ruins of Los Angeles by ASTRA—the armored enforcers of Spéctarion—and the key she carries may be the reason why.
 
Hungry, alone, and out of options, she finds refuge in the Dogtown Mercado, a ramshackle maze of traders, hackers, and scavengers who live by grit and barter. There, a streetwise mentor known only as the Docent takes her under his wing, teaching her the rhythms of the Market and the thousand small rules that keep its people alive. For the first time, Kick feels the shape of a new kind of family—one forged in the cracks of a dying city.
 
But when the truth behind her mother’s key surfaces, it points to a secret powerful enough to burn the world down—and Spéctarion will stop at nothing to claim it.
 
Toxic dust. Found family. And a key to the end of everything.