Cece Davenport can feel the Veil in her bones… and in her lungs, her joints, and every place her chronic illness makes itself at home. Hollow Veil needs her magic to mend the dangerous shimmers slicing through town. Her body needs her to lie down. The Council mostly needs her to be quiet and convenient.

Fire Chief Benjir Faques has already lost an arm to Veil fire and swore that was the last piece it would take. But when a locked boundary and a series of disasters threaten Hollow Veil, he ends up where he always does: walking toward the danger, and finding Cece at the heart of it.

A political power grab forces Cece and Benjir into an arrangement that looks a lot like courting and keeps him at her side when the Veil turns volatile. The field responds in ways no one expects, tying their work—and their futures—closer than is strictly comfortable.

Now the town is watching, the Council is circling, and Cece has a choice: burn herself out the way everyone expects, or stand her ground with the man who keeps proving that loving her means respecting every limit she has. In Hollow Veil, saving the world looks a lot like doing the work, eating the hand pies, taking the tonic, and letting someone stay by your side when you are tired.