Meet Wandersky—a paradise city in the clouds. Knowledge about the surface is forbidden by the emperor, but it doesn’t stop his seventeen-year-old son, Prince Gabriel, from wondering. He doesn’t know that the surface—called the Downside—is a mess of pollution and a zombie-like disease called the Sickness. Sixteen-year-old soldier Avery Sloane wants revenge on Wandersky for abandoning their people down there centuries ago, so her father, the Downside’s leader, repairs an old airship to get her up to the floating city.

But when Avery gets the Sickness, she fears her life is over. It isn’t until she discovers she has an immunity to the disease that her father makes her the leader of the revolution to invade Wandersky. When Prince Gabriel flies down there to escape his tyrant father, their paths cross—and they become locked in a war that will change the world forever…

Excerpt:

Damn, I think to myself as I walk around the village, this place is a dump.

Maybe I shouldn’t say that about my home, but it is. We live in a series of run-down shacks, stacked on top of each other in a section of the village called the Stench. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how it got its name when you smell the sweat, blood, and hopelessness.

Pollution wafts through the air, and I make sure I have my oxygen mask in my pocket. The smog isn’t as thick here, but it could get worse any day. The sky is bleak and grey, and as I glance up, I see the faint, golden towers in the sky above the clouds.

Those damn Skyborns have it all. They’re monsters for leaving us down here to die all those centuries ago—worse than the Stalkers themselves.

I clutch my bow tighter as I pass a group of people. They wear rags that are falling off and their hair is dirty and disheveled, but they still find a reason to smile. I lost mine years ago. I keep an eye on them and force myself to be ready at any moment. They could be Stalkers—putting everyone in the village in jeopardy.

But Stalkers are easy to distinguish from the rest. Pale skin, droopy black eyes, bursting veins, a sluggish walk. They have none of those things, so I put my head down and keep walking along the dirt trail.

And I’m thankful I don’t have to kill anyone today. Yet.