Equinox - WIP

Darcy is a commodity -- a young woman in a society where access to her is about as prestigious as having all the world's wealth. Under disguise, she and her father attempt to navigate this dystopian world as cautiously and quietly as possible, keeping under the radar.

But when her father dies trying to protect her from a forest fire, Darcy is left stranded--and pursued--by the very people they had been trying to avoid.

With little survival experience and almost zero sense of self-preservation, Darcy has to choose between trusting a stranger, or taking a chance on her own.

---

Jan doesn't want anything to do with anyone, least of all someone completely useless. However, he has been following a strange couple through the old suburbs of the crumbling city, tracking them as they head straight for a trap--one he is intimately familiar with. He can make a choice: either warn them or leave them to their fate.

But when a forest fire takes out a large portion of the forest he relies on so heavily for his own survival, Jan discovers the duo has turned solo, and with the threat of enslavement hot on the woman's heels he jumps into action.

Now, burdened by a woman who can hardly move through the forest without alerting everyone to her presence, he leads her to his safe house, and puts her to work. If she's going to stay, she's going to earn her keep--simple as that.

Haunted by his own past, Jan's hard heart softens, and he begins to wonder if maybe the solitary life isn't for him, after all...

and as Darcy learns how to take care of herself, she starts to wonder if she could somehow avenge her father's death.

Equinox is a novel that explores the emotional impact of struggle & trauma, how it shapes who we are and how we interact with the world--and each other.