The Archive of Borrowed Names

In Virelia, history isn't written--it's checked out. Beneath the city's grand public library lies the Archive: a sealed vault where the powerful store stolen memories, erase witnesses, and "return" inconvenient truths to the darkness. Leina Sorrell has spent years as a retriever--hunting rare memories before they spread, telling herself she's keeping the peace. Until she discovers a hole in her own life. Her mother's face is missing from every photograph. Her name has vanished from every record. It's as if she never existed at all. When Leina breaks into the restricted stacks for answers, she's caught by Rowan Vale--the Archive's feared Warden, an immortal Binder whose magic can force truth with a touch. Instead of turning her in, Rowan offers a dangerous bargain: help him uncover the traitor forging impossible due dates and destabilizing the vault, and he'll lead her to the one place erased lives are rumored to survive. But the deeper they dig, the more the Archive fights back. Neighborhoods lose their past overnight. "Overdue" creatures prowl the halls--hollow people stripped of identity, hungry for names. And at the heart of it all lies a relic whispered about like a curse: the First Receipt, the only record capable of proving what was stolen... and who profited from forgetting. To save her mother--and herself--Leina may have to burn the system she helped enforce... and trust the one man sworn to protect it.