Tessa Blackwell makes a living fixing magical contracts after they go wrong.

Then a woman arrives at her worksite with twenty-three minutes left to live.

The contract threatening her was paid off years ago.

It should be dead.

When the countdown reaches zero, Tessa discovers the problem is much bigger than one failed agreement. Across the city, old contracts are waking up. Protections turn against the people they were meant to help. Closed records have been altered. Agreements that should have nothing in common all lead back to the same hidden infrastructure.

Someone has found a way to reach into contracts that should have ended years ago.

Tessa starts following the trail through the city's magical bureaucracy, uncovering a pattern powerful people would rather keep buried.

But Tessa has an old contract of her own.

And whatever is waking the others may already know where to find her.

Break Clause is an approximately 81,000-word urban fantasy mystery-thriller about dangerous contracts, hidden systems, institutional secrets, and a highly competent woman determined to find out who is rewriting the rules.