Rust-Bound

Eighteen-year-old Nolan Reed has spent his life logging hours in virtual worlds because the real one never had much use for him. Then a forty-hour raid ends with him collapsing - and waking up somewhere far worse than a respawn screen.

Deep beneath the surface lies the Rust-Warren: a steam-driven goblin city of scrap, ingenuity, and survival. And somehow, Nolan is now tethered to Kiv - a brilliant, scattered goblin mechanic whose mind only quiets when he's close. Separation is agony. Closeness is the only cure.

Branded a Parasite Blight and tolerated at best, Nolan has to earn his place in a world that doesn't want him - while Kiv carries the weight of a brother sold into slavery and a Warren that's running out of time. When the Blood-Horn Iron Horde comes to collect what they believe is theirs, Nolan and Kiv have one shot to prove they belong - to the Warren, and to each other.

Rust-Bound is a gritty industrial fantasy about loneliness, belonging, and the strange, painful miracle of finding your people in the last place you'd ever look.