Sahan Kotori died calling out Arvada Sattar's name as he fell into the sun at Harrar's Reach.
Or did he? Because after a long dim time, awareness comes to ... something. Something with no body and no name. No eyes, no ears, no breath. Only a great black void.
Then dreams of Arvada begin spewing out of the darkness. Searing visions of her betraying him time and again. Betraying him in combat, betraying him with a stream of lovers until the whole crew laughs at him. While Arvada laughs loudest of all. Her laughter tortures him.
Someday, he vows, somehow, he will silence that laugh forever.
Believing Sahan dead, Arvada fights battle after bloody battle against the Evolved and their Collaborationist allies. In a daring cruiser raid she captures an Evolved Captain; one of the Living Evolved, who has not yet crossed the chasm of the Terror Barrier to join the Group Mind.
The Captain reveals a secret: Sahan still lives. The Evolved could not save his body, or all of his brain. But they did recover enough to reprogram him as a weapon — against her.
Somehow Arvada must stop him. Having lost Sahan once, she cannot bear to experience that heartbreak again.
But beyond that, she knows Sahan Kotori will prove the most dangerous foe she and the free Peregrines have ever faced.
