Tavik Ward spent his best years in the Void Reapers, a special ops unit trained to board enemy ships in the black.

Then the military dumped him when the repair bill got too high. Now Tav pulls mercenary security on a swamp world at the edge of nowhere, living on painkillers and watching the rain.

When an alien artifact detonates during a strike, Tav wakes up changed. A dormant alien intelligence has bonded to his bones. A fifteen-foot drake is linked to him through violence and shared survival. And the Aegis Commission, the faction that governs all alien-derived power, gives him a choice: join them or be terminated.

Rifts are opening between dimensions. Something ancient is coming through. And the institution that owns Tav may be more dangerous than whatever waits on the other side.