Essence

In the empire of Mora, essence is everything—strength, speed, power beyond human limits. It's also illegal to own unless the emperor says so. Gaspar is a street thief with no family, no title, and no patience for a system built to keep people like him at the bottom. So when he hears a merchant is quietly sitting on two black-market vials, he does what he does best: takes them. But the pull he feels from those vials is something he wasn't expecting. And it's just the beginning of his problems.