Burn the Water

By: Billy Ray

Published by Scholastic, Incorporated, 2026-03-03

<p><b>From award-winning screenwriter of <i>The Hunger Games</i> Billy Ray comes an immersive and breathtaking enemies-to-lovers epic romance about war, loyalty, and the power that love has to save... or destroy.</b></p> <p>The year is 2425 and London is underwater.</p> <p>Three hundred years ago, rising oceans drowned a vast majority of the English Isle. London is now a jungle of dead skyscrapers and submerged streets.</p> <p>Fighting over the scraps of a world none can remember, two Houses -- the Crowns and the Rogues -- have been at war for three centuries.</p> <p>Rafe is the Rogue army's fiercest captain. Jule is the Crown army's deadliest soldier. They are vicious and merciless, courageous and beloved by their Houses. They are sworn enemies.</p> <p>And then they fall in love.</p> <p>It's a death sentence. But their love is all-consuming. As Rafe and Jule try to keep each other alive in their war-torn world, they are forced to confront new, horrifying threats to their loved ones while the hatred between their Houses only grows.</p> <p>When mysterious foreigners appear on their shores, the warring factions may destroy each other, unless their two most ruthless soldiers can become beacons of peace and possibility, showing their people a different way, and save them all.</p> <p>From the award-winning screenwriter of <i>The Hunger Games</i> comes a visceral and breathless forbidden romance about sacrifice, the neverending cycle of violence, and fiery, all-powerful love.</p>