by
Targeted by a mad scientist's deadly serum, these outcasts band together to uncover the truth and to fight back.
Spire City is home to mighty machines of steam power and clockwork, and giant beetles pull picturesque carriages over cobbled streets, but there is a darker secret behind these wonders. A deadly infection, created by a mad scientist, is spreading through the city, targeting the poor and powerless, turning them slowly into animals. A group of those infected by the serum join together to survive, to trick the wealthy out of their money, and to fight back.
Originally serialized in weekly installments, this book collects the entire first season of episodes in one complete novel.
Genres:
Tropes: Band of Misfits, Found Family, Mad Scientist
Word Count: 78000
Setting: City
Languages Available: English
Tropes: Band of Misfits, Found Family, Mad Scientist
Word Count: 78000
Setting: City
Languages Available: English
Chels stayed against the wall, her breaths slowing gradually. The shouting didn’t bother her. In times when she had moved openly as a homeless girl, before she’d found and joined the Weave, she’d suffered much worse. She kept seeing the carriage, though, a black gleaming thing speeding at her. She felt it strike her. It hadn’t really, and she knew that, but her body felt it, a ghost pain where the wheel would have knocked her down and rolled over her.
When she could stand, she examined the bag of food. Anything not well wrapped was certainly muddy, and the cloth had the start of a tear at the bottom. She thought, hoped, it would hold long enough to get home.
READ MOREHer gait was awkward for the final block, her arms tired from carrying the food, her side sore from striking the street, but she paused at each intersection and looked down the alleys.
Williver was in the front room when she entered, his owl eyes wide in the dark. He was a vain boy, only a bit older than she, but he managed the vigil well. His interrogation of her was much less thorough than Marrel’s.
“I already heard from Pemisza. So just tell me about coming home.”
“A bit crazy in the streets, but no cops that I saw.” Chels told him briefly about the steam car and the near collision with the carriage, and he waved her by.
“Marrel will want to hear it again, I’m sure. You’ll find her downstairs.”
Chels picked up the sack, forcing it to her shoulders, and stumbled toward the pit with the hidden door. As she reached the edge, Williver’s voice stopped her.
“Chels, wait.” He stood and came toward her through the dark. “What’s on your ankle?”
“My ankle?” Chels reached down and brushed at her leg. Her fingers stopped at something. She pulled and held the thing up, but she didn’t need owl eyes like Williver to know what she would see. The bag of food tumbled into the pit, food spilling out, and she sat down hard at the edge. A tiny dart with its empty vial at the end dangled from her fingers.
