Bloodbound
YA Fantasy (93K words)
The sun is gone for the season. Lantern light gilds the falling snow.
The Immortals dance in their windowless halls, free from all fears except one: the fear of losing elixir, bottled immortality.
Welcome to the Empire.
Odessa was born lucky. Her family is one of the few in the Empire that can afford elixir, which means she'll never die. She should be happy, right? But Odessa has a secret, a rare metal-bending power, and she longs to share it with the world. Problem is, the Empire’s busy extracting elixir from the indigenous lands, and it sees people with powers as a means to that end. When Odessa's power is discovered, she runs rather than become a human weapon. If she can cross the border, she'll be safe... as long as her elixir doesn't run out on the way.
Neprom was born unlucky. His city is a paradise, but being poor and an ex-slave bars him from the best parts of it. Instead, he gets harassed by soldiers and kicked around by his gang. If he became an Immortal, though, all that would change. So even though Neprom hates that the Empire was built with his blood, he wants its signature product—elixir—more than anything. When he meets Odessa, he agrees to smuggle her across the border... and if he steals her elixir, well, that's justice.
Soon they're scrambling through labyrinthine tunnels with half the Empire after them: military operatives, bootleg elixir gangs, and shadows that act as surveillance drones. But the biggest threat is the elixir running through Odessa’s blood. She’s addicted to it. Neprom’s desperate for it. And sure, it's impossible for them to trust each other with elixir in the equation. But it's even more sinister than they realize, and it might bind them both in chains.
Pitch
An aristocratic girl with a metal-bending power and a thief with a cursed tattoo team up to escape a dystopian regime that extracts and hoards elixir (bottled immortality).
Only they’re both addicted—one to the drink, the other to the dream.
Comps
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo x Aladdin.
Audience
Young adults who love unlikely friendships and lush settings; anyone who’s angry about capitalism and what it’s doing to us.