Angel Engine

The city stopped dying the night Jax found an Angel, broken and powerless.

Fourteen-year-old Jax has spent his whole life watching the world end slowly: the power grid failing, the rivers turning to sludge, the sky gone permanently gray. He's learned not to expect anything from anyone. Then, on an ordinary scavenging run, he finds something that changes everything: an Angel named Uriel, broken and powerless, barely escaped from the military machine that had been draining him for who knows how long.

Freeing Uriel is only the beginning. The ring that lets him channel his full power was stolen from him the night he was captured. Without it, he's fading. With June, who has a plan for everything; Piere, who never met a bad idea he didn't try anyway; Justin, still figuring out what he believes; and Valerie, who's already seen more of this broken world than anyone her age should have to, Jax sets out to retrieve it from the one place in the city still heavily guarded.

Things are not as easy as they seem. Something is watching, something ancient and patient, very good at finding the cracks in people. His name is Avarice, and he has spent centuries making sure humanity never gets another chance.

As the ground itself starts turning against them, fissures opening, creatures rising from below, Jax and his friends, and Rex, the dog who refuses to leave his side, will have to decide what they're willing to risk for a world that's already been given up on.

The Rulers are watching. The verdict hasn't been written yet.

Angel Engine is Book One of a YA sci-fi series about coming of age, surviving the odds, and what it means to choose hope when fate of humanity has already been decided.