Her family, gone, destroyed from within Her kingdom, doomed, tainted by blood Unless a scion rises to become something… more In a single ruthless blow, Commander Lorraine Adamant’s favorite uncle murders everyone ahead of him in the succession for the Star Kingdom of Adamant. Only luck and the paranoia of her bodyguard, Vigo Jarret, saves Lorraine’s life. On the run in a single starship Lorraine should never have commanded, with a crew she can not trust, she swiftly learns her uncle’s hounds are hot on her heels. She must gather every skill, every trick, she has ever learned if she is to survive—and pray the uncle who taught her those tricks is a step behind. Because one thing is certain: Lorraine Adamant will save her Kingdom—or die.

At the heart of humanity At the beginning of everything Hope can be born… or destroyed For months, Princess Lorraine Adamant has fled from star system to star system in a desperate attempt to evade the minions of her uncle, the man who murdered her entire family to seize power in the Star Kingdom of Adamant. Thanks to the crew of her ship and her loyal bodyguard, Vigo Jarret, Lorraine has finally reached her goal: the homeworld, Earth. There, she plans to lay her case before the United Worlds, the oldest and greatest of humanity’s nations. But to an ancient democracy, the trials of an obscure kingdom are hardly relevant. Lorraine must turn her mind from war to diplomacy, to convince the homeworld to honor its oaths and save her Kingdom. One way… or another.

A promise of victory A long journey home The price of alliances Lorraine Adamant, Pentarch of the Kingdom of Adamant, has crossed hundreds of light-years to find the allies needed to overthrow her uncle, the man who killed her family and stole her mother’s throne. The allies she found aren’t the allies she wanted, but three powerful sentient battlecruisers and a skilled covert operator from the United Worlds’ seedy underbelly are a force to be reckoned with. Between the firepower of the Valkyrie\-class battlecruisers, the minds of the Synthetic Intelligences that command them, and the skills of the spy who loves her, Lorraine has a real chance of saving her Kingdom. If she can get them all home.