In the first book of the Bound by Batasurna series, ​Kalaire, a Royal Science Division field ecologist, had been studying the phenomenon on a distant planet when she and her team were suddenly recalled without explanation. But after their year-long return trip home, everything has changed. No one answers their hails. The planet, Erupea, has become a wasteland.

 

And the only message left behind is an obscure, broken transmission from the Empress: Get the medallions.

 

Luken, a native of Erupea, is Kalaire's only ally after she becomes separated from her team. He blames her people for the destruction of his world and the soul-bond his people held sacred. He wants nothing to do with her. But the longer they survive together, the more undeniable the pull between them becomes.

 

And the more she begins to fear him.

 

Because if the bond between them is real, then one of them dying isn’t the worst outcome—it’s what happens to the one who survives.