In the caldera city of Khaldera, midwives keep the bones humming and the living breathing. Thalia Ilin is the Harbor's most notorious practitioner—necromancer, bell-ringer, and the only midwife bound by oath to Vokrel, the ancient bone-wyrm coiled above the Cathedral ribs. When a forbidden device detunes the city's marrow, Khaldera begins to fail in the quietest, deadliest ways.

Enter Malach Rhost, a fallen general with a ledger for a heart and a past the Council would rather forget. To save a laboring Matriarch—and the city that depends on her—Thalia and Malach must form an unlikely partnership built on one iron rule: ask first. Their enemy is the League of Still Cities, whose "calmers" promise order while stealing breath, turning grief to profit and consent into collateral.

From hush bowls and ghostwind nights to river weirs and riot-stopping "squares," Khaldera becomes their patient. As romance sparks under rib-light and bone-runes glow, Thalia and Malach race to anchor a new magic—the Ask Clause—before the League's blockade, a priest's knife, and a failing keystone break the city for good.

Protective wyrm. Tender, grown-up heat. Found family.
She doesn't just deliver children. She delivers a city.