Bones

The first book in the Bones series is set in a postapocalyptic world where civilization has collapsed and society has fractured into fortified settlements called holds, ruled by warlords and plagued by raider gangs. In the prologue, a starving 10-year-old girl is found alone in the desert by Juck, the calculating leader of a biker gang called the Reapers. She demonstrates a supernatural ability to heal wounds by touch, pushing a bullet out of a man's shoulder and closing the wound completely. Juck claims her as his own and names her Bones. The girl privately reflects on her brother Wolf, whose survival training kept her alive after she was exiled from her childhood home.

Twelve years later, Bones is 22 and has recently escaped Juck's control after killing him. Mercenaries capture her, but a separate group breaks into her cell. During the chaotic escape, one of the rescuers, a brown-eyed man named Trey, takes a bullet through the gut while shielding her. Though Wolf's voice in her head screams at her to run, Bones heals the dying stranger instead. She is knocked unconscious and wakes in the group's custody. Their leader is Mac, a scar-faced man who identifies Bones as Juck's "secret weapon." Also present are Griz, a large, calm man, and Jax, a 15-year-old. They transport Bones to a fortified mountain settlement in Montana called the Vault.

The Vault is ruled by Madame, a ruthless older woman who seized power 30 years earlier. To test Bones's abilities, Madame slashes Mac's stomach open and orders Bones to heal him. When Bones complies, Madame forces her to heal a tortured prisoner repeatedly so the interrogation can continue. Bones pushes her powers past their limit and collapses with a high fever, a condition called burnout. She wakes tended by Clarity, Trey's half-sister. Mac informs Bones she has been assigned as the Vault's healer and added to his crew. Madame will summon her for torture sessions, and defiance means the whipping post.

Bones settles into the clinic and begins healing residents freely for the first time. She reveals that Juck forbade her from using her powers on anyone but himself for 12 years, forcing her to teach herself conventional medicine from scavenged books. Sam, another crewmember, discovers that Juck starved Bones as punishment and begins bringing her broth at every meal. Madame interrogates Bones about the Reapers' collapse and Vulture, a rival who staged a coup against Juck. Bones admits she killed Juck but lies about having no family. Mac's contacts warn that people outside the Vault are asking about Bones, raising the question of who may be hunting her.

Over the following weeks, Bones is summoned repeatedly to Madame's dungeon. Trey gives her riding lessons and respects her boundaries. When Lana, a woman who blames Bones for her brother's death, arranges for two men to attack Bones at the clinic, Raven, a crewmember, reports the plot, and Mac and Trey stop the assault. The perpetrators are exiled, and Trey moves into the clinic to guard Bones at night, giving her a small knife for self-defense. As her feelings for Trey deepen, Bones panics, fearing enemies will target him to control her. She pushes him away by pursuing Zip, a rough logger, getting drunk every night so she can tolerate his touch.

Bones secretly gives her food rations to orphaned children in the hold. A young girl named Apple becomes their leader and begins trusting Bones. When Trey discovers this, he offers to help, and they reconcile as friends. From the orphans, Bones learns that Mac originally brought her to the Vault as part of a deal with Madame: He would retrieve Juck's secret weapon in exchange for Trey's release, as Madame had arrested Trey for involvement in a rebellion. Bones convinces Madame to let the orphans serve as her messengers in exchange for food and shelter.

A devastating illness sweeps the Vault. Bones discovers the sickness feels unnaturally dark, like fighting an alien force, but only her healing powers are effective against it. Over two months she saves hundreds of people, pushing to the edge of burnout repeatedly. Trey carves her a wooden dandelion, since real ones cannot grow in winter. When the sickness recedes, he takes her outside the walls to see the Northern Lights.

Zip grows violent and strikes Apple. Trey intervenes, and Bones breaks with Zip. She discovers the Pit, a fighting arena where sentenced prisoners are executed by a giant named Brimstone. When a teenage girl named Sky, Raven's cousin, is thrown in, Bones jumps into the arena to save her. Brimstone beats Bones savagely, breaking her arm, until someone shoots him dead. Back at the clinic, Sam channels Bones's healing power through his own body to mend her injuries, a desperate experiment that nearly kills him. Bones and Trey share their first kiss before Madame's men arrest her.

Madame confines Bones in a dark cell for nearly six days, then announces the punishment will transfer to Mac as 10 lashes. Bones volunteers to take them herself and is publicly whipped. Afterward, Mac injects her with a narcotic painkiller against her wishes. While drugged, a telepathic figure Bones calls the Shadow, who has stalked her since she was 13, invades her mind. The Shadow sees her memories of Trey and the Vault and threatens to kill Trey. Bones resolves to escape and draw the Shadow away.

Bones hides in a logging sleigh departing the Vault and discovers Trey already inside; the crew anticipated her plan, and Trey chose to come. They sneak away from the loggers' camp, and when Zip discovers them, Trey kills him with a silenced pistol. As they hike through the mountains, Bones tells Trey about the Shadow, a second powered person who can enter her mind when she is drugged and who may have orchestrated the Reapers' destruction. They share their histories and become lovers. Bones reveals that her brother Dune died in an accident involving her powers and that her father exiled her at age 10, telling her Wolf wanted her dead. At a remote trading post, Bones heals a terminally ill child. They trade the silencer for a horse and provisions before continuing west.

Vulture, alive and leading a new group, ambushes them at a dam crossing and drugs Bones. He returns them to the Vault, where Madame holds Trey at gunpoint before the entire hold. Despite Bones's desperate pleas, Madame shoots Trey in the head. Bones tries to heal him, but her power cannot bring back the dead.

Chained in the clinic under Vulture's guard, Bones is consumed by grief. She stops eating and speaking. When Madame summons her to heal Nemo, a council member Madame has been torturing, Bones refuses and is beaten unconscious. Eight days after Trey's death, a full-scale rebellion erupts. Griz kills Vulture, and Bones heals the wounded on both sides. When Griz and Jax are both shot, Bones heals them simultaneously, unleashing a massive burst of golden light that heals 15 people nearby before she collapses.

The rebellion succeeds. Nemo assumes leadership and begins reforms. Bones goes alone to Madame's cell and slits her throat with the knife Trey gave her. Months pass in a haze of grief. Mac finds Bones at Trey's grave and brings her back to the clinic. In a raw conversation, Bones confesses her rage at Trey for leaving her and admits she fears she has been destroyed. Mac insists she is not alone and agrees to stay the night.

When Mac leaves to get a bedroll, someone grabs Bones in the dark, claps a hand over her mouth, and speaks her real name for the first time in 12 years. The lights reveal her brother Wolf, his green eyes identical to hers, burning with fury. The novel ends on this cliffhanger.