Every Paragon is one of a pair. When one is lost, the other is diminished. Holden lost his second before he could even remember her. Now that he's found her, he'll finally be complete. Katia Yazykova hides her darkest and most dangerous self, fearing the day she loses grip again. Intent on concealing her own violent history, Katia doesn't know that she's being hidden from something much worse. She doesn't know that if she's found, her makers will turn her into everything she fears. Nothing ever ends as it should, and everything comes at a cost. Cover by the talented @soundthealarm

Language warning for the actual novel. Paragon. A dying galaxy, exhausted of all but the most basic natural resources and home to three failing superpowers. A great war tore the galaxy apart two and a half centuries ago, and still, the scars are vivid. Much of the surviving population toils under regimes ensnared in endless rings of bureaucracy, inaction, and corruption - under regimes that have forgotten them. Carok. Paragon's savior, and Paragon's reservoir. For two hundred years, Carok has been bled dry by the survivors of Paragon. For two hundred years, Carok has been powerless to stop them, keeling to the brutality and militarization of Paragon's endlessly-warring nations. For two hundred years, insurrections and uprisings have been mercilessly crushed in the name of the greater good - in the name of Paragon. As Paragon spirals into a new depression and Carok's strength develops under the corruption and ignorance of Paragon's protectorate fleets, the fragile peace between the two galaxies is flung headlong into a critically unstable situation - a situation that it was never expected to endure.