She's the reluctant heiress to the throne of her empire, a hermit kingdom built upon the bones of a fallen interstellar civilization. Bored of the frivolous pomp, Talitha sets her sights on the stars and their mysteries. What waited on the other side of the Rift Gate her people were too afraid to open? Once of age, she finds her escape while serving a tour with the legion in the far reaches of their domain, but a near-death encounter with an unidentified craft awakens within her a supernatural ability. Hoping to uncover the source of it, Talitha realizes she must venture beyond the Rift Gate. The journey may very well hold the key to ruling her own destiny, but the answers are not all what she expects. And the mysteries waiting for her in the stars are not the kind which want to be found.

Tomorrow was supposed to bring graduation. Instead, it brought war. On the eve thereof, Oakland Tech's class of 2019 finds itself on the top floor of a San Francisco luxury high rise in an illicit party involving the most unlikely guests: a tech billionaire's son, a police chief's two daughters, a mute renegade, and the class recluse. Then the power goes out. Missiles scorch across the night sky. Downtown San Francisco erupts under an apocalyptic bombardment unlike anything ever seen. In the hours that follow, the shaken classmates must band together to escape a collapsing tower and endure a bloody invasion as they are caught in the crossfire. Those who survive find that it is only the beginning of their harrowing ordeal.