Kiss Me Extinct

A city beneath the sea is running out of room to breathe.When a mysterious bell sounds beneath Serravenn's harbor, surveyor Nara Seldren follows its warning across the sea. She finds streets beneath transparent roofs, children sleeping above rising water, and an old agreement that has kept her own city safe at someone else's expense.The submerged city's leader demands their ship as collateral. Surrendering it would put the vessel's people and future in his hands. Refusing leaves Nara searching for another way to save the threatened nursery before its last refuge floods.Ilan Drevane can help her trace the machinery behind the debt. But his confession has left wounds that usefulness cannot heal. Aboard the ship, shared meals become invitations to stay. Below the waterline, Nara must decide how much she can trust him with—and how much of herself she wants to let him see.As evidence exposes the choices hidden in the city's accounts, rescue becomes a fight over who gets to decide what others must lose. Nara needs a plan both shores will accept. The water will not wait for one.Book Two in H. K. West's planned five-book Kiss Me Extinct series is a science-fantasy suspense novella combining alternate realities, political intrigue, moral dilemmas, and slow-burn romance.Approximately 11,300 words. Begin with Book One; the central relationship continues across the series.