In the rain-soaked cyberpunk archipelago of the Spires, where megacorps fuse humans with ancient spirit beasts to create unstoppable weapons, Ryker Hale is a ghost a failed vessel with no spirit root, surviving on shadow-hacks and bitter defiance. When his ex-lover Lira lures him into a trap for Helix Dynamics, Ryker expects betrayal. He doesn’t expect the forbidden Beast Code a buried experiment that awakens inside him during the brutal culling ritual. What should have killed him instead fractures him, granting terrifying power: claws that tear through armor, code-veins glowing beneath his skin, and predatory instincts that whisper in Lira’s stolen voice. But the Code doesn’t stop at one host. It multiplies. As Ryker flees through neon-lit underdistricts, his face appears on every wanted broadcast tied to crimes committed by the monstrous echoes spawning from his own fractured essence. With corporate kill teams closing in and his own body mutating unpredictably, Ryker must hunt the growing legion of his dark duplicates while unraveling the conspiracy that created the Beast Code. Lira, torn between her corporate masters and lingering feelings, may be his only ally or the deadliest echo of all. In a world where power demands sacrifice, Ryker Hale must decide: purge the beast inside him and die a ghost… or embrace the fracture and become something far worse than the monsters hunting him.

When the apocalypse arrives, some people get fortresses, and others get weapons. Liam gets a library card. Returning a late book turns into a nightmare when the world outside shatters into red light. Before he can process his new reality, he witnesses a terrifyingly beautiful man execute another survivor with a flick of his wrist. The system screams a warning, and the killer turns his sights on Liam.With no powers and zero combat skills, Liam throws the only thing he has: a heavy hardcover book. Instead of a mild concussion, the book unleashes a blinding light that drags both Liam and the murderous predator into its pages. To survive, Liam must navigate dangerous fictional worlds, outsmart a lethal hunter, and somehow tame the very monster trying to kill him.