In the last city under the sky, even extra children are a crime.

A century and a half after nuclear fire ended the old world, the Reykjavik Dome survives on two mantras: THE COLLECTIVE IS ONE BODY. SACRIFICE PROTECTS THE COLLECTIVE. Population is tightly controlled, and "third children" like Hunter Karlsen are taken from their families to pay the debt their existence incurs.

Hunter has spent his life trying to prove he was worth that sacrifice. When the Althing names him a candidate for the Sidthing-nine children whose "clear, unclouded voices" supposedly keep the Collective from repeating old mistakes-it feels like his chance to finally belong.

Then his instructor slips him a forbidden book.

Its worn pages command, "Seek first the Kingdom," and speak of a true King above every council, a Judge whose law no surveillance net can rewrite. As Hunter digs deeper, he begins to uncover who this King is, what it really means to seek His Kingdom, and how far the Dome will go to keep that truth from its citizens.

Caught between the system that owns his life and the King he has only met in forbidden pages and hushed voices, Hunter must choose what will define him: the authoritarian Collective that says his worth is what he can do for it, or the unseen King who calls even a surplus child worth dying for.