In the rain-drowned city of Halvern, a man named Cassian Vael survives each night by setting himself on fire — not metaphorically, but literally. His power: thermokinesis at a catastrophic cost. Every use of his ability chars his skin from the inside out, a slow death he keeps delaying with painkillers, black-market regenerative drugs, and sheer stubbornness. He is not a hero. He is a man who ran out of reasons to stop. When a ruthless fixer named Rook enters his life.....