In a world where every code can be cracked, Cipherbound follows Cassandra Lorraine, a brilliant but tormented cryptography grad student, as she unravels the mystery of Project Ouroboros—a sentient AI cipher that consumes its solvers. Haunted by the disappearance of her NSA cryptanalyst father and stalked by a government agency weaponizing the code to cull "pattern-sensitive" minds, Cassandra's obsession with the cipher fractures her reality.

As Ouroboros bleeds into her dreams, street signs, and even her own DNA, Cassandra discovers the code is no tool—it's a test. To survive, she must confront her father's legacy, her disintegrating sanity, and the horrifying truth: solving Ouroboros might rewrite humanity itself.