“You don’t need the stars telling your story. I don’t believe in constellations. Not yours, not mine. So forge your own future.”

Reese Sadoleto is an ex-slave, genius machinist, and the only companion of the superhuman “Vigilant.” Together, Reese and the Vigilant battle the City of Machindoun’s underground slave trafficking network and force its secret leaders to the brink. But the night the Vigilant plans to deliver the death blow and end slavery for good, he vanishes.

A tense ceasefire settles over Machindoun. Trafficking goes underground and regular folk walk the streets again. With no hero to mend, missions to plan, or gear to repair, Reese determines to forget her past and forge a future all her own.

But the past never forgets.

A year after his disappearance, the Vigilant’s foes return to take back Machindoun, killing one of Reese’s new friends in the process. Fueled by vengeance, Reese determines to finish what the Vigilant started no matter the cost. She weaponizes her body with cybernetics while playing the city’s criminals, elite, and working class against each other in an escalating game of cat-and-mouse.

Machindoun’s factions go to war against each other, unaware that Reese has orchestrated the conflict. But when her greatest foes reveal themselves as the architects of Machindoun’s—and Reese’s—suffering, she realizes that to kill her past, free herself from the Vigilant’s legacy, and forge her own life for herself, she must sacrifice either her humanity or her life. Neither vengeance nor her foes will let her escape with both.

"Vivid worldbuilding and an irresistibly fierce protagonist make this intricately woven SF thriller an absolute gem." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Rhiannon Moushall

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