The Thirteenth Floor
(2026)(The seventh book in the Chicago Underground series)
A novel by Daniel Pelfrey
In Chicago, the skyscrapers are not just piercing the skyline. They are feeding on the city.
When a security guard steps into an elevator at the Millennium Spire and never returns, Detective Sofia Vega knows his disappearance is no ordinary police matter. As a fire mage and lead investigator for the CPD Arcane Investigations Unit, Sofia handles the impossible daily. But she has never faced a threat engineered directly into concrete and steel.
A ruthless visionary is weaponizing Chicago's architecture. By folding reality itself, a billionaire architect has created hidden, impossible thirteenth floors across the city's most exclusive skyscrapers. The people trapped inside are not merely prisoners. They are living batteries powering a massive, unstable dimensional network.
And the machine is redlining.
With spatial anomalies erasing entire penthouses from existence and the Veil protecting the mundane world shredding on live television, a catastrophic collapse is only hours away. If the network implodes, half of Chicago will be dragged into an endless void.
Guided by anonymous blueprints from a ghost in her family's past, Sofia and her partners must infiltrate the labyrinthine core of the network. The Nexus is a sentient trap where gravity shifts without warning, corridors loop into infinity, and the walls themselves actively hunt intruders.
To shatter the ultimate cage, Sofia must push her ancestral magic past its safe limits. Saving her city will require more than just a badge. It will demand burning through the very foundations of reality.
Perfect for fans of gritty, procedure-driven urban fantasy. If you love the magical underworlds of Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, the magical law enforcement of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London, and the fierce, character-driven action of Ilona Andrews's Kate Daniels series, step into the Chicago Underground.
Genre: Urban Fantasy
When a security guard steps into an elevator at the Millennium Spire and never returns, Detective Sofia Vega knows his disappearance is no ordinary police matter. As a fire mage and lead investigator for the CPD Arcane Investigations Unit, Sofia handles the impossible daily. But she has never faced a threat engineered directly into concrete and steel.
A ruthless visionary is weaponizing Chicago's architecture. By folding reality itself, a billionaire architect has created hidden, impossible thirteenth floors across the city's most exclusive skyscrapers. The people trapped inside are not merely prisoners. They are living batteries powering a massive, unstable dimensional network.
And the machine is redlining.
With spatial anomalies erasing entire penthouses from existence and the Veil protecting the mundane world shredding on live television, a catastrophic collapse is only hours away. If the network implodes, half of Chicago will be dragged into an endless void.
Guided by anonymous blueprints from a ghost in her family's past, Sofia and her partners must infiltrate the labyrinthine core of the network. The Nexus is a sentient trap where gravity shifts without warning, corridors loop into infinity, and the walls themselves actively hunt intruders.
To shatter the ultimate cage, Sofia must push her ancestral magic past its safe limits. Saving her city will require more than just a badge. It will demand burning through the very foundations of reality.
Perfect for fans of gritty, procedure-driven urban fantasy. If you love the magical underworlds of Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, the magical law enforcement of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London, and the fierce, character-driven action of Ilona Andrews's Kate Daniels series, step into the Chicago Underground.
Genre: Urban Fantasy