The Dying Tide

Saltmere is sinking. One inch every hour. Seventy-two hours before the city drowns permanently.

The Tidestone — the great crystal that has regulated the Ocean Empire's tides for eight centuries — has been stolen. And Kaelen Thorne, invisible mid-level bureaucrat at the Tide Ministry, is the only person who saw it coming. He filed seventeen reports. Nobody read them.

Now, partnered with Sable Finn — a sharp-tongued harbor thief who was at the vault the night of the theft and saw something she was never meant to see — Kael must chase the stone across a fracturing empire before the city he has quietly loved for fifteen years disappears beneath the waves.

The problem: the Tidestone is not just a heartbeat. It is a weapon. The most powerful tidal weapon ever built. And the man who stole it is not a criminal. He is the most respected official in the empire — a man with a plan, a coalition, and a coldly reasonable argument for why the world needs to be remade.

He is also Kael's boss.

The Dying Tide is a noir-drenched fantasy thriller about institutional corruption, invisible heroes, and the terrifying reasonableness of intelligent villains. For fans of Tana French, John le Carré, and Scott Lynch.

The tide is coming in. Kael Thorne has 72 hours. He has never mattered before.