A ship that cannot leave. A Mage that will not stay. A meeting of desperations. In a galaxy tied together by the magic of the elite Jump Mages, Damien Montgomery graduates into their numbers - only to discover that without connections, he can't find a ship and is stuck in the Sherwood system. Pirates attacked David White's jump freighter, leaving him with a dead Mage and a damaged ship - stuck in Sherwood, where a grieving father has blacklisted him from hiring a replacement Jump Mage. When their desperate needs meet, Damien Montgomery is drawn into a conflict with the most powerful criminal organization in the galaxy-and to the attention of the Mage-King of Mars himself!

History holds many secrets. The frontier holds many shadows. One ship may damn all mankind. One ship may save them. In a bold and brazen act of treachery, the Royal Martian Navy exploratory cruiser Rose was stolen and is now in the hands of the conspiracy group known as Nemesis. Guilty of a thousand crimes, Nemesis and its leader, Kent Riley, are determined to find proof of the alien threat they have secretly been preparing humanity to face. Set in pursuit by the Mage-Queen of Mars herself, Mage-Captain Roslyn Chambers commands Rose ’s sister ship, Thorn, in a chase that brings her to the far reaches of the galaxy. Her orders are bringing Nemesis to justice and, if at all possible, prevent them from waking a sleeping beast. Riley will find the enemy at any cost. Chambers will stop him. Among lost worlds and ancient crimes, the secrets of the past both seek may mean nothing—or everything .

A dark shadow awakens on the edge of known space. Long lost and long forgotten, an alien foe rises, One that would power its return by enslaving humanity! During her pursuit of the human traitors known as Nemesis, Mage-Captain Roslyn Chambers ventured deep into alien stars. She destroyed her enemy at the final moment, but saw firsthand the might of the alien empire Nemesis called the Reejit. The lost world Chimera has hidden between human and alien space for generations. Roslyn must protect the planet from this waking threat, but both the human and alien colonists see her as a harbinger of nightmare. Roslyn may have the full faith of the Mage-Queen of Mars, but political interference quickly undercuts Roslyn’s diplomatic power and the chain of command. She is replaced as Ambassador by Connor O’Hannagain, a man loyal to the Protectorate, but not its Queen or credos. Chimera’s fate will decide that of a hundred worlds. Can Roslyn save Chimera, make an ally of O’Hannagain, and serve her Queen? She’ll need to draw on every trick she knows as an officer, a Mage, and a protégé of Damien Montgomery—or fail to uphold every oath she has sworn!

The power and reach of Mars are beyond question The limits of that power are all too real At the edge of their reach, even they cannot save everyone… Faced with the terror-inspiring might of the reawakened Reezh Kazh, the Church of the Nine that once ruled hundreds of stars, the people of the Dual Republics of Chimera have asked Mars and humanity for protection. For now, the Protectorate is united behind their Mage-Queen. Ambassador Connor O’Hannagain and Mage-Captain Roslyn Chambers are charged to do everything they can—but the reality is grim. The Protectorate is too far away. The Chimera System cannot be saved… but the Chimeran people might be. Even as every warship Mars can spare is rushed forward to their new ally, massive fleets of transports are assembled to carry as many people to safety as possible. The magical power of Mars can save some of Chimera’s people, human and reezh alike, but if steel and magic cannot guard the innocent, Chambers, O’Hannagain and others all face a single harsh question: When Chimera falls, who stays behind?

Vengeance hunts them.Rebellion seeks them.Loyalty commands them.The shadows will fear them.Captain David Rice and Mage Maria Soprano have made their choice, signing up with the Martian Interstellar Security Agency and converting Red Falcon into a covert operations ship for the Protectorate.Their new duties drag them back into the very underworld they once strove to escape, intentionally provoking the Azure Legacy into a renewed conflict. They find unexpected allies with secret agents from Legatus' rebellion against Mars as they seek to stop Mikhail Azure's Blue Star Syndicate from being reborn.The Azure Legacy wants revenge. Legatus wants blood. David and Maria are bound by the overriding duty of all officers of the Mage-King's the innocent.