The sequel to Space Junque. Her fate was to hold the world together. His destiny was to tear it apart. In a world threatened by sterility, Durga has spent eight years implementing the goddess’s plan for the “chalices” — women the goddess has made fertile. As Durga approaches her eighteenth birthday, she dreads becoming a chalice herself. Khai, the scion of Luxor, passes through Corcovado on his way to a meeting of power brokers and falls hard for Durga—but the very laws he intends to impose will make it impossible for them to be together. Meanwhile Char Meadowlark and Jake Ardri are deeply in love, but there’s a problem. When Jake is about to be crowned king of the city-state he built, an enemy reveals that Jake’s unborn heir has no soul. The only hope is the hieros gamos—orgasmic sacred sex with the chalice who carries Jake’s child. Char wants Jake to be king, but the idea of him having mind-blowing ritual sex with another woman is a bit hard to take. But if Jake’s heir is soulless, he will lose his city and fail everyone who depends on him for survival. In flagrante apocalypto. When the veil drops between life and oblivion, only love can save them from the abyss.