In Crescent City, every hero wears a mask. Some wear it to protect the innocent. Others wear it to hide the truth. Seventeen-year-old Evan Drake was never meant to become a symbol. He was just a teenager trying to survive school, family pressure, and the ordinary fractures of growing up-until one violent night changed everything. After saving his sister from danger, Evan is discovered by Vanguard, the city's celebrated protector, and trained to become Shadow: a masked vigilante moving through the darkness to fight the criminal Syndicate tightening its grip on Crescent City. But heroism is not as clean as Evan once believed. When a mission goes horribly wrong and a police officer is killed, Evan is left carrying a guilt he cannot escape. The city's underworld grows more dangerous, a mysterious figure known as the Architect pulls strings from the shadows, and Lucky-a Syndicate insider who may be enemy, victim, or reluctant ally-keeps leading Evan deeper into a truth no one wants uncovered. As Detective Michael Crews closes in, Evan's family begins to fracture under the weight of his secrets. His sister Mia, Lily Grayson, Rachel, and everyone he loves become tied to a war they never chose. And the more Evan searches for the Architect, the more terrifying the answer becomes. Because sometimes the greatest villain is not the one hiding in the dark. Sometimes he is the hero who taught you how to fight. Shattered Masks is a gripping young adult superhero thriller about betrayal, guilt, identity, corruption, and the painful cost of becoming a hero in a city built on lies.