The Given — Colby R. Rice

BOTH EXCITING VOLUMES of Ghosts of Koa, The First Book of Ezekiel!

(Includes “THE GIVEN” and “THE TAKEN”)

For over one hundred years, Azures and Civilians have held a shaky truce, peppered by violence and mistrust. Both seek to lay claim to the world's oldest and most powerful art -- the high art of Alchemy -- by any means necessary.

The problem is, Azures now have the upper hand.

They have marshaled themselves into the unstoppable Alchemic Order, a mating ground of magic and science, guilds and vassals, clans and kings. Worse yet, they are stripping the Civic Order and its Civilian territories of their resources, claiming rights to all that Civilians have ever owned, alchemical or not. Now, only the Articles39 -- a truce of thirty-nine codes of humane conduct during wartime -- stand between the Civilians and extinction.

This is the world that sixteen-year-old Zeika Anon was born into: the alchemic apartheid, a world of fear and doubt where Azures reign supreme, the Civilian practice of Alchemy means a death sentence, and where Zeika, for the sake of her family, must walk the thin line of oppression and peace. But when KOA, a Civilian-born insurgency, bombs an Azure summit, the shaky truce between the two Orders is shattered. Now, KOA is rising. War is coming. And Zeika finds herself in the crosshairs of fate. Now, she must walk a different line: the one between survival and rebellion against the Alchemists. On one side of the line awaits death. On the other, the betrayal of her civilization, her loyalties, and herself.