When twenty-two-year-old Kai Shaw is uprooted from quiet small-town life and dropped into the gleaming, ruthless towers of New York, he expects culture shock—not a war. After his father's death, Kai is taken in by his sister Amara, a senior VP at Thorn Industries, the empire built by legendary tyrant Charles Thorne. But the empire is crumbling under the rule of Charles's prodigal son, Jaden: a man raised to be perfect, powerful, and untouchable—and now determined to burn his inheritance to the ground.

Kai's plan is simple: keep his head down, survive the city, and protect what's left of his family. Instead he finds himself summoned by Jaden himself, drawn into a lethal game of sabotage, blackmail, and corporate espionage. Every secret he uncovers reveals another layer of armor around the icy CEO—and another crack in the gilded cage that has trapped them both.