In the soot-choked city of Copper-Hollow, every heartbeat is a debt. And the bank is coming to collect. Isadora Finch is a phantom in "The Drips." As a rogue technician, she risks her life illegally winding the mechanical hearts of the city's forgotten poor, keeping them one beat ahead of the debt collectors. But Isadora carries a secret of her own-a stolen prototype heart that has kept her alive while the authorities hunt for it. Bastian Krole is the High Creditor of the Vellum Bank. Cold, ruthless, and physically imposing, he holds the Master Key that can stop any mechanical heart in the city with a single turn. For years, he has hunted the thief who took his family's most precious invention. When he finally corners Isadora, he doesn't want her dead-he wants the prize beating in her chest. Forced into a lethal debt-bondage contract, Isadora must serve as Bastian's personal mechanic while a mysterious "Clockwork Fever" begins to turn the city's organs into shrapnel. In a world of brass and betrayal, Isadora must decide if she can trust the man who legally owns her pulse, or if her synthetic heart will shatter before they can find the truth. A gritty, high-stakes Dark Romantasy where love is the most dangerous machine of all.