Beulah is a city divided by privilege and poverty, and seventeen-year-old Ellio lives in the poorest district of all-the Downs. Assigned there at birth, even his extraordinary gift with machines isn't enough to escape Beulah's rigid class structure.

But the boundaries of his world start to crumble the night he encounters a mysterious young woman.

Kaya is stubborn, impulsive, and volatile. His opposite in every way. Worse, she's from Aurea, the city's golden district, and beneath her hardened exterior lies a web of secrets tangled around Retiarius, an elite fighting guild. How did she wind up in the Downs that night? And what's her connection to Retiarius?

As Ellio and Kaya's relationship deepens, they defy the boundaries of Beulah's class system, risking everything to continue meeting in secret. When their forbidden love is put to the test, Ellio will have to decide if Kaya is just another impossible dream, or if some things are worth fighting for-even in the Downs.