Escape Me

This novel is set in a dystopian future following the fall of The Reestablishment, an authoritarian regime whose remnants now operate from Ark Island, a secretive stronghold powered by Klaus, a synthetic omnipotent intelligence capable of surveilling and controlling minds. The protagonists live in The Waffle, a fortified campus within the capital city that serves as headquarters for The New Republic, the government that replaced the old regime.

James Anderson, the 21-year-old younger brother of The New Republic's leader, Aaron Warner Anderson, wakes exhausted in the kitchen of his friends Kenji Kishimoto and Winston after days of crisis. The city is recovering from a coordinated assault that exposed deep infiltration by Reestablishment agents. Months earlier, James solo-infiltrated the Ark after a gas-line explosion killed over a hundred children, bringing back Rosabelle, a trained Ark mercenary, as a potential intelligence asset. James possesses a supernatural healing ability that allows him to channel restorative energy into others, a power that proves critical later.

James has not seen Rosabelle in five days. After Sebastian, Rosabelle's long-lost fiancé from the Ark, was unmasked during a violent ambush, Rosabelle struck a deal with Warner: She would share her intelligence about the Ark in exchange for James being completely cut out of her life. When Nazeera, a close ally of the group, announces a mandatory meeting ordered by Warner, James freezes. As he leaves, he overhears Nazeera whisper that Rosabelle wants to marry Sebastian and return to the Ark. James is devastated but refuses to believe it, recalling Rosabelle's tenderness and concluding she is pushing him away to protect him.

The narrative shifts to Rosabelle's perspective as she visits Sebastian at the rehabilitation facility. Sebastian is the son of Alastair Rivers, the supreme commander of The Reestablishment on the Ark, and is connected to Klaus, whose presence causes his eyes to glow blue when officials watch through him. Rosabelle positions herself as a double agent who has earned the rebels' trust. Sebastian strikes her twice in the face, causing possible jaw and orbital fractures. She endures the violence silently, having anticipated it to build her cover.

Flashbacks reveal Rosabelle's history with Sebastian. As a child, she discovered he had killed her pet cat out of jealousy. At 12, after he threatened to have her younger sister Clara sent to an asylum, she stabbed his hand with a knife. In retaliation, she was placed in solitary confinement without food or light, and Clara was officially stripped of eligibility for food, aid, or education. Rosabelle's plan is to exploit Sebastian's obsessive devotion: She needs him to take her back to the Ark, where a lavish wedding would distract from her true mission to destroy Klaus from within. She senses a crack in his loyalty when she realizes he did not know his father arranged her death sentence just after approving their wedding invitations.

Meanwhile, James helps his sister-in-law Juliette, born Ella Sommers, whose pregnancy has been destabilizing her control over her lethal supernatural powers. Warner insists their lead healers, twins Sonya and Sara, move in for the remainder of the pregnancy. James discovers hateful death threats on his compromised pager and reports the security breach to Warner.

After leaving Sebastian, Rosabelle encounters three scientists at the facility who were research partners of Leon, a former resident whose body she witnessed exploding from the inside. They theorize something inhuman was implanted in Leon, and Rosabelle confirms it was Klaus. Warner arrives, sees her battered face, and is furious.

At the mandatory meeting in Nazeera's barren house, where Rosabelle has been staying, James discovers the kitchen is virtually empty and erupts in anger about her living conditions. The argument escalates as James unleashes months of frustration about being dismissed. Warner concedes James was right about everything and apologizes. James then forces a confrontation between Kenji and Nazeera about their unresolved relationship, pushing Nazeera to tell Kenji she still loves him. She leaves to find him.

Alone in the house, James enters Rosabelle's room against orders and finds she has been sleeping on the bare floor, using his ruined denim jacket as a blanket and his wool hat as a pillow, with his small enamel kite pin placed beside her head. She had hand-washed the blood-soaked items and demanded the hospital let her keep them. This confirms for James that her feelings are real.

Warner, reflecting on the crises converging, is surprised by the early arrival of Castle, the former rebel leader who once led Omega Point, an underground resistance movement. They interview Hugo Wolff, Rosabelle's father, at underground headquarters. Hugo, a former regime commander who was tortured and left for dead before the revolution, reveals that Sebastian's father was once groomed to become supreme commander before the position went to Warner's father. Hugo admits his memories are returning, but he is also losing stretches of time. Warner notices Hugo's wrist veins appear black.

James ventures into the city and is mobbed by citizens who have learned about his Ark infiltration through leaked footage. Kenji reinstates James to his rank of Captain in the New Republic's security forces and orders him to headquarters, where James leads a raid on a hidden depot of Ark weapons at the docks.

That night, Warner confronts Rosabelle. She reveals The Reestablishment's full plan: Undetectable explosions across the continent will erase supernatural powers, and within six months, a gene edit will prepare civilians' minds for Klaus's direct control. Warner reveals he can sense emotions and has deduced her weakness: She loses her protective emotional armor around James. He confronts her with the truth she has never allowed herself to think. She loves James.

A massive explosion rocks the campus. Nazeera's house, not properly connected to the campus's secondary protective shield, sustains the worst damage. James finds Rosabelle with a pane of glass lodged in her throat. He pulls the shard free and channels his healing energy into her, pushing dangerously too much power in his desperation. She survives but is deeply sedated.

Warner races home to discover Juliette has given birth. The healers Sonya and Sara performed emergency surgery when labor accelerated suddenly. Warner meets his newborn daughter, and Juliette asks to name her Emmaline, after Juliette's deceased older sister.

James brings the sedated Rosabelle to his and Warner's shared house. When she wakes in his bed, their long-suppressed connection ignites in desperate, vulnerable intimacy. When James asks her to promise she will never intentionally endanger herself, reality intrudes. Her plan to destroy Klaus requires returning to the Ark and almost certainly dying. She tries to flee. James tells her he loves her, and sudden excruciating pain shatters through her right arm. Her temperature skyrockets, and she collapses.

Twenty-four hours later, Rosabelle wakes in an underground lab. After James leaves the room, she closes her eyes and discovers a pulsing blue message behind her eyelids: "INSTALLATION COMPLETE." She tears off the bandage on her arm and finds a diamond-shaped patch of altered skin with veins pulsing electric blue, resembling circuitry. Klaus's system has been installed inside her body. The novel ends on this cliffhanger, with Rosabelle now carrying the very synthetic intelligence she had planned to destroy.