Ayla wakes up in a hospital—body shattered, memory fractured—and no idea who Selen is, the sister everyone insists she had.

Then there’s Pappi, a man she meets at the hospital, and who stays out of things that aren’t his business. Desperate to find the truth, Ayla ropes him into the search.

Her search for answers leads her through Thessaloniki’s hidden underworld: an abandoned water tower, a gangster-infested motel, a swamp where everything rots.

But the deeper she digs, the more her mind begins to betray her. The gaps in her memory aren’t just blank—they twist, shift, and threaten to consume her.

If Ayla can’t uncover the truth soon, she won’t just lose her sister.

She’ll lose herself.

KANINA KRISALIS is a Balkan-born author who graduated from the American University in Bulgaria and completed a creative writing program at Boston University.

Her debut novel, NECTAR. Sounds of Soft Things Breaking, is a dark, genre-defying exploration of memory, disappearance, and the slow unraveling of identity.

She divides her time between Sofia and Thessaloniki and writes under the pen name Kanina Krisalis to let the stories speak for themselves.