the gods we became
The world died in fire and hunger. Not the slow death of time, nor the patient decay of empire, but in one great convulsion, a sickness let loose like a rabid dog to consume the weak and clear the board. That was The Compact’s plan. Cull the herd, raise the shepherds.
They made the Novans for that purpose—gods wrapped in flesh, towering over men with their turquoise eyes and minds sharper than razors. They were designed to lead, to rule, to rebuild the world in The Compact’s image. But first, the world had to burn. So The Compact unshackled the virus. The Eaters came. And the world ended.
Yet, in the ruin, three souls move against the tide.
Briggs Alabo, nine years old, a scientist, a genius, a monster. One of The Compact’s prized minds, his hands shaped the very plague that tore the world apart. But now, he’s lost, alone, hunted—trapped outside the walls in a world of his own creation. And for the first time, he sees the world not as numbers, but as faces, as screams, as dying prayers. He is small. He is weak. But he is not done.
Cassandra, a university student who thought life was a path you walked at your own pace. But the world doesn’t ask permission. It takes, it devours. And now, she runs, she fights, she survives. She does not know that the architects of this ruin whisper her families name in their halls.
Hamza, a survivalist, a man prepared for the end of days—but not for what came after. Not for the Eaters, nor for the horrors men become when the rules turn to dust. He thought the greatest war was against the dead. He was wrong.
Their paths should never have crossed. But fate is a patient spider.
Captured after a brutal fight with a Novan, Cassandra and Hamza are taken to The Compact’s hidden bastion. And there, a secret is laid bare—Hamza is not just a man. He is a legacy. The son of General Hamza Tarfa, the first and deadliest Novan ever created. A man thought dead by Hamza, a legend of the Compact gone rogue, a warlord building a force to tear The Compact down.
Now, Hamza must choose. Will he kneel to The Compact and build their utopia? Or will he stand with a father who left him behind, a father who now seeks to burn the false gods from their thrones?
Meanwhile, Briggs returns home—or what’s left of it. The Compact’s halls are empty. The man made gods have fled. And in their place, wolves. Bandits rule the ruins, their leader a beast of a woman called Anansi. Briggs, small and breakable, is given his first lesson in real survival. He does not break. He does not beg. He wins.
But he is not alone. The General has found him.
And war is coming.
