A desperate scholar. A broken hunter. A frontier that forgives nothing.

Field Naturalist Neris Alcroft knows nature’s laws, but the frontier respects only power. With her family’s survival on the line, she is marching into a lethal wasteland to reclaim her murdered father’s stolen research, armed with nothing but her fierce intellect. She needs a guide who can keep her alive.

Stone planned to spend his remaining days at the bottom of a bottle, swearing he’d never return to the Wastes. But Neris is a sudden storm that shatters his crude defenses and refuses to take ‘No’ for an answer.

Together, they navigate unforgiving elements, alchemical horrors, and a relentless Concord Marshal. Yet the greatest threat might be the scorching heat between them. As they hunt a madman trying to unmake the world, their icy truce ignites into a fierce, protective passion. In the crucible of the Wastes, the only way to survive the apocalypse is together.