Celeste Colt

Orsolyzsa Kenderesy deserted her military unit rather than abandon her commanding officer in a cave-in—a choice the army branded as cowardice. Now, she makes her living as a freelance guide in the treacherous Hasadék mountain zone. When a distress call comes from the deepest, most dangerous underground research station on the Hasadék Route, Orsolyzsa is hired to get a rescue team there. The catch: the team is co-led by Dr. Lórágy Folyosy, a brilliant but rigid botanist whose team must share a shoestring budget with a rival geology division. Every step deeper into the cavern system forces Orsolyzsa and Lórágy closer together as they navigate falling rocks, failing stations, and toxic spores. The subterranean journey will strip away their defenses, but the hardest hurdle isn't surviving the depths—it's trusting each other enough to make it out alive.

Leyla-tay knows every forgotten tunnel, rusted fire escape, and subterranean gate beneath the sprawling metropolis of Alta-tay. By day, she maintains the city's decaying locks; by night, she protects her family's failing subterranean restaurant from developers. When sharp-suited corporate consultant Ozan-bek is sent to find the physical flaws needed to shut the restaurant down, their clash ignites a dangerous game of cat and mouse through the city's hidden core. But beneath the concrete lies the truth of a catastrophic explosion that wrongfully imprisoned Leyla-tay’s father. To expose the real culprits, the gatekeeper and the closer must navigate the deadly back-alleys of the past and the present, before the city they both love crumbles on top of them.