B.G. Kell

In the canal-choked merchant city of Vízvárad, blood is thicker than water—but toxic silt pays the bills. Tivian Lánczy is the family fixer for a struggling salvage and dredging crew. When the Lánczys' main submersible diving bell breaks down, they face imminent ruin at the hands of the wealthy dredging cartels. Salvation appears in the form of Zsuzsóka Várady, a high-born merchant offering an exorbitant payday to salvage a supposedly simple lockbox from the perilous deep-water district. But the cargo isn't what she claims, the volatile underwater currents aren't the only things trying to crush them, and a violent rival crew is already hunting for the prize. To save his family’s livelihood, Tivian must navigate cutthroat guild enforcers, treacherous tides, and the deadly, hidden agenda of his own benefactor.

Hayes Carver has one job: keep his highly volatile, metal-eating Scale-Hound fed, calm, and moving along the treacherous tri-kingdom caravan routes. But the heavily trafficked highway is fracturing, spitting up remnants of the massive, buried crime that built the allied cities in the first place. On the other end of the route is Penn Stafford, a saboteur who knows exactly whose bodies are petrified beneath the pavement, and who is methodically tearing the road apart to prove it. As their paths forcefully converge, Hayes must use every ounce of his grit and the bond with his dangerous beast to protect the trade route he relies on, while Penn leverages his intellect and traps to tear it down. Two highly capable men, fighting on opposite sides of a reawakening world where every mile costs blood.